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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22991176">One Of A Million: Cody and Rex</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/raemanzu/pseuds/raemanzu'>raemanzu</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/spica_tea/pseuds/spica_tea'>spica_tea</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aromantic, Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Brotherhood, Brothers, Cadets, Canon Compliant, Child Soldiers, Childhood Friends, Children, Family, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Military Training, Minor Injuries, Misunderstandings, No Romance, Pre-Canon, Soldiers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2014-12-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 07:22:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>30,891</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22991176</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/raemanzu/pseuds/raemanzu, https://archiveofourown.org/users/spica_tea/pseuds/spica_tea</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>NOTE: Currently transferring Cody and Rex fics over here from One of a Million!</p><p>Connected stories of Cody and Rex as batchers. LTFADverse but you need not have read LTFAD to enjoy these.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>CC-2224 | Cody &amp; CT-7567 | Rex</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>98</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>LTFADverse</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. First Evaluations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Rating: PG<br/>Genre: Gen<br/>Warnings: None<br/>Summary: At their first meeting in the beginning of officer training, Cody is particularly intrigued by one of his new teammates and tries to reach past the cadet's critical and serious demeanor.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>             Cody jumped over the finish line and nearly tripped himself as he turned to look over his shoulder while running. He threw his hands in the air in triumph. “I WIN!”</p><p>             Someone shoved him and he stumbled. He just managed to stay upright and turn to see who it was.</p><p>             “Whoa, whoa, whoa, Snapper, he won fair and square!” said 4569, shoving 241 slightly in turn.</p><p>             4339, 2088 and Fort were straggling a short distance behind.</p><p>             “I<em> know</em>!” Snapper said exasperatedly. “I was just having a little fun. Besides, he can take it, can’t you Twenty-Two Twenty-Four?”</p><p>             “It’s Cody,” Cody said, rolling his shoulders back and tossing his head up as he came to a standstill. “And yeah. I can take it.”</p><p>             “I almost beat you!” Snapper yelled, stomping one foot dramatically, but he was grinning. “Just wait until we get to spar in hand to hand, then I’ll<em> really</em> beat you.”</p><p>             “Not literally, right?” 4339 said uneasily. “We’re not supposed to injure each other seriously, you know.”</p><p>             “Ah come on, you guys are no fun. The guys I was training with before always knew when I was joking.”</p><p>             Cody shrugged. “I could tell.”</p><p>             “Me too,” 2088 piped up from behind 4339.</p><p>             “Really?” Fort said. “You can’t even remember all of your numbers.”</p><p>             “I’ve only been training with you since this morning!” 2088 said. “Not like you and Snapper and Forty… Forty-Six-Ninety-One.”</p><p>             “It’s Forty-Five-Sixty-Nine.” 4569 smacked his forehead. “There’s not even a one in it. The first three numbers are right next to each other!”</p><p>             “Alright, alright!” 2088 said. “I’ll pay more attention.”</p><p>             “Master Chief!” 4569 said abruptly, and they all turned and came to attention as Os Tala entered the room, replacing the other Kaminoan who had been supervising their fitness regimen.</p><p>             “Come,” she said immediately. “You will have your meal on the way. We will be joining another group for your next exercise.”</p><p>             As they walked in single file down the hall, Cody dug into the compartment on the belt of his training armor and pulled out a ration cube. This was nearly his third week of getting his body used to them, and his stomach had finally stopped demanding real food. Still, they didn’t taste any more exciting than they had the first time he’d tried them.</p><p>             Silently, Master Chief led them into the huge mess hall, and stopped. A cadet was approaching, six or seven years old, just like most of the other clones in the room. He was followed by five other unknown cadets.</p><p>             “Ready for orders, Master-Chief!” said the cadet. He stared straight ahead, helmet under his arm, completely focused.</p><p>             “Come,” she replied, turning immediately to lead them back out. “Today your squad will be combined with the best of your age group and divided into two new teams. We will see who can work their way through the courses we have prepared with greater speed and accuracy.”</p><p>             Cody smiled a little at the praise: the best in their age group. He looked around the massive mess hall full of six and seven year olds. There were hundreds… thousands.</p><p>             In two lines, they followed her silently out and toward the antechamber for their training course, passing groups of other cadets on the way. It was impossible to guess their abilities just from looking, but he still doubted there were any racing to lead the pack as quickly as them.</p><p>             “Group one, assemble on my left.” Os Tala began listing off numbers for group one as soon as they had entered the training room and spread into a single line. Cody waited for his number to be called. 2088 and 4569 stepped away. As usual, Snapper was unable to stand perfectly still—his fingers tapped lightly against his thighs. It was the first thing that Cody had managed to link to his number, to set him apart after he’d responded to Master Chief calling him that morning. It was always a bit tricky for the first few minutes, meeting a new brother.</p><p>             “Cadets Four-Three-Three-Nine, Seven-Five-Six-Seven, Two-Two-Two-Four, Two-Four-One, Six-Zero-Zero-One, and Five-Five-Three-Six are in group two.”</p><p>             7567—the intense one, Cody thought—stepped with 6001 to join Cody and the other three on the Master Chief’s right side.</p><p>             “Take a moment to select your weapons. As soon as you are ready, the training doors to your separate chambers will open when both groups input the command. Cadet Four-Five-Six-Nine and Four-Three-Three-Nine will be team leaders for the first round. I will be observing your progress.”</p><p>             “Yes, Master Chief!” everyone called.</p><p>             As soon as she left, the groups broke ranks and hurried toward the opposite wall to pick out their weapons. 7567 put on his helmet immediately and reached for the dual pistols. Fancy, Cody thought. Ambitious. Not what he expected from such a stoic face. He hurried over and grabbed a belt of grenades and the common training rifle, meant to simulate a DC-15 blaster.</p><p>             “You’re Seventy-Five Sixty-Seven, right?” he said confidently. “I’m Twenty-Two Twenty-Four. You can call me Cody. Are you good with those?”</p><p>             7567 held the pistols at shoulder height and looked at him for a few seconds, his expression behind the visor just as guarded as before. Cody blinked calmly back at him, smiling just a little in what he hoped was an encouraging way.</p><p>             “Yeah, I will be,” 7567 finally said, and turned away abruptly.</p><p>             2224 grinned and hefted his rifle, stepping persistently into his path. “I’m working my way up to the big guns. Master Chief says she’ll let me try a Z-6 as soon as I grow another couple of centimeters.”</p><p>             “If you can lift it,” the other new guy—6001—laughed, taking grenades and one pistol. “Those things are <em>huge! </em>They’re as big as we are!”</p><p>             “Alright!” 4339 cried in a cracking voice, and shook his fist high above his head with a gangly arm. “Alright, men, come on, hurry up and get focused! Line up! Everybody say your number and what you’re best at. We don’t know what’s behind those doors. A good leader uses every man’s strengths! Right?”</p><p>             7567 stepped up to Snapper’s left; Cody shifted to stand between 7567 and 6001 with Fort bringing up the end.</p><p>             “Yes, sir!” Cody jumped in brightly. “Cody here. I’m a pretty good shot.”</p><p>             “We’re all good shots, <em>Cody</em>,” 5536 groaned.</p><p>             “Yeah, but I’m the best,” Cody joked.</p><p>             “Hey! Cut the chatter,” 4339 barked. “Twenty-Two Twenty-Four, I need a more specific answer.”</p><p>             “Come on, Forty-Three Thirty-Nine, you already know what I’m good at.”</p><p>             “No one else does.”</p><p>             Muffled laughter rose from the rest of the cadets. When Cody looked over at the two new guys, 6001 was stifling a smile, but 7567 was still strictly at attention.</p><p>             “I’m creative, I guess.” Cody said. “If we get stuck I’ll have some ideas how to get us un-stuck.”</p><p>             “Okay. Next.”</p><p>             “Quick, sound judgment,” 7567 said choppily before anyone else could speak. Maybe he was nervous. “I always pay attention to what’s happening on the battlefield. Seventy-Five Sixty-Seven, sir.</p><p>             “Good. Next?”</p><p>             “No nickname?” Cody whispered to 7567 as 6001 said something about speed.</p><p>             7567 glared at Cody—he could see it even through the helmet!—but stayed silent. Okay… maybe this one was touchy about nicknames. Maybe he was one of those cadets trying to leave an embarrassing childhood nickname behind.</p><p>             “Two-Four-One. I go by Snapper,” Snapper said, raising his gloved fists. “And I’m best at hand to hand combat.”</p><p>             “I go by Snapper, <em>sir</em>,” said 4339.</p><p>             “Yes, sir,” Snapper said begrudgingly.</p><p>             “Fifty-Five Thirty-Six,” 4339 prompted with a quick jab of the finger.</p><p>             “Yes <em>sir</em>,” Fort said slowly. “I’m… well, I’m pretty good at predicting what the enemy will do. That’s why they call me Fort.”</p><p>             “I don’t… get it,” said 6001.</p><p>             4339 sighed impatiently. “It’s short for—”</p><p>             “You guys done over there?” 4569 called from group one’s position by their door. “Let’s get a move on, Slowpoke Squad! Don’t worry, brothers, beating these guys is gonna be easy!”</p><p>             “We’re ready,” 4339 said, placing his hand on the activator.</p><p>             The doors opened and 4339 led the way into a bright corridor. The end was crowded with B-1s, which immediately began firing.</p><p><em>             “Attention cadets: your ship is under attack.” </em>Os Tala’s voice came from inside their helmets. “<em>You must make it past the droids to reach the gun-wells and fight off the opposing ships before your ship is destroyed.”</em></p><p>             “There’s cover up ahead!” Snapper yelled, as they all flattened against the walls or ducked to get under the line of fire.</p><p>             “Everyone head for the left opening! Stick together!” 4339 commanded. He led the charge. Cody pulled his attention back to the droids and almost immediately took down two. He loved how familiar the blaster felt to him by now. He barely had to think about it. 7567 was trying to aim both his pistols, but—</p><p>             6001 gave a frustrated yell when a bolt zapped his armor. “I’m out!”</p><p>             Cody refocused and hurried into the left opening, which was really more of a shallow indentation. 4339 and Snapper had already almost filled it.</p><p>             As soon as 7567 reached the left opening, he dropped to one knee and kept firing. “It’s too narrow! We won’t all fit!”</p><p>             “I’m sure this isn’t all they’re throwing at us,” Fort yelled, just before a bolt hit him square in the chest. “Arg!”</p><p>             4339 motioned sharply with his elbow between shots. “Seventy-Five Sixty-Seven, take point across from us!”</p><p>             “Copy that!” 7567 rolled across the corridor and came up in the indent on the other side. Between shots of his own, Cody saw him peer around the corner and take another clanker down. “Now what?”</p><p>             And another one! 7567 could aim.</p><p>             4339 was silent for a moment, trying to shoot the B-1s without getting his helmet singed. Cody tried to study the hall with every glance he stole around the corner to fire. There seemed to be two doorways about halfway between them and the B-1s. A glowing blue sign hung from the ceiling at the end. He took one more shot and scrapped his fourth B-1.</p><p>             “They’re pretty thick,” 4339 said. “Our checkpoint is behind them. We’ll have to break through with grenades.”</p><p>             “On a ship?” 7567 yelled. “That’s not a good idea. We can’t risk breaching the hull!”</p><p>             “I meant droid poppers, obviously!” said 4339.</p><p>             “Yes, sir!” 7567 yelled back.</p><p>             “I’ve got this,” Cody said, pulling a grenade from his belt. “With your permission, sir.”</p><p>             “Do it!” 4339 ordered.</p><p>             Grinning, Cody hurled the grenade down the hall. It landed right on its mark in the middle of the B-1s, and seven of them went dead just as three huge metal balls rolled out of those newly-opened doors on both sides of the corridor. They unfolded into turrets, activated an encasing globe of shimmering light, and began to fire.</p><p>             “<em>What </em>are <em>those</em> things?!” 6001 cried.</p><p>             Snapper made a growling noise as he threw a grenade at them. The grenade bounced off and came right back at them. “Fort said things were going to get worse! Look, they’re ray-shielded! How do we get past <em>that?</em>”</p><p>             “Somebody’s going to have to draw their fire,” 4339 said.</p><p>             “Where?” Cody protested. “This corridor’s too narrow.”</p><p>             “I bet they can’t shoot at us if they’re rolling… we have to figure out a way to get them to move.” 4339 grabbed Snapper’s hand as it moved toward the rest of the poppers on his belt. “Don’t! You’re wasting them!”</p><p>             7567 stopped shooting, and Cody glanced at him, but he couldn't see an expression from this angle.</p><p>             “Well, what else are we supposed to do?” asked Snapper.</p><p>             “If we can throw the droid poppers over those things,” said Cody, “clear the way behind them, maybe one of us can break through.”</p><p>             “One of us,” said Snapper. “But what about the rest of us?”</p><p>             “There’s no way just one of us will break through those things,” 7567 said firmly. “You’d have to be crazy to try it. Forty-Three Thirty-Nine, <em>you’re </em>the leader. Just tell us what your plan is.”</p><p>             “Listen,” 4339 said. “They’ve stopped shooting.”</p><p>             7567 peeked around the corner again. Cody kept his position, grenade in hand, trying to mentally prepare himself for the throw.</p><p>             “They’re coming this way,” 7567 said. “Their shields are still working.”</p><p>             “When they get a little closer, <em>then</em> we make a break for it,” said 4339. He looked around at them all. “Snapper, Cody, throw on my mark. Ready…. ”</p><p>             Cody pictured the grenade sailing up and through that narrow window between ray shield and ceiling. If they were going to rush the enemy, he couldn’t decide which angle would be best. It was a risky plan… even if the grenades got through, it was no good getting rid of the B-1s if the big droids still stood in their way. Their shields obviously repelled both lasers and solid objects, but did it extend only to the deck plating they stood on?</p><p>             The cadets waited in the quiet, hearing the clanking of droid feet on metal plating. Suddenly, there was a rumbling noise; the giant balls of metal appeared and unfolded right between them—</p><p>             “RUN!” 4339 hollered.</p><p>             Cody fumbled to stick the grenade back on his belt and surged out with the others, nearly tripping over Snapper. He saw 7567 squeeze past the droid’s shields on the other side.</p><p>             None of them got five steps down the corridor before they were shot from both sides. Cody let a disappointed groan out at the shock from his armor, and 7567 grunted, lurched to a halt, and let his pistols fall to his thighs.</p><p>             Os Tala’s voice came over the speakers. <em>“Four-Three-Three-Nine, your time has run out, and your ship has been destroyed. Group Two, return to the antechamber. You will repeat the challenge, but this time, Two-Two-Two-Four will lead. You have one minute to consider your strategy.”</em></p><p>             “Excuse me, Master Chief,” Cody said to the ceiling. 4339 stared at his feet, Snapper stopped, and 7567 looked over his shoulder at him on the way to the exit. “I have a suggestion on how to improve our training programs.”</p><p>             <em>“Go on, cadet,”</em> she said after a pause. 7567 slowed even further.</p><p>             “If this were a real ship,” Cody said, injecting confidence into his voice, “we would have a lot more options for how to solve this problem. We would be able to try alternate routes through maintenance hatches, or… create a hull breach with a bomb to suck the enemy out into space!” Cody motioned emphatically with his rifle. “We could even run back the way we came. Maybe you could reset the parameters to simulate something like that.”</p><p>             7567 stopped near the doorway, where 6001 and Fort were already waiting. Fort sighed and moved his head in a way that suggested he was rolling his eyes. Cody walked slowly to join the rest of them, face turned hopefully toward the ceiling.</p><p><em>             “Your input has been noted,”</em> said the voice from above. Master Chief almost sounded amused, but Cody still felt disappointed. <em>“This program is designed to test a very specific set of decision-making skills in a situation where your options are severely restricted.”</em></p><p>             “Understood, Master Chief. I just thought that—”</p><p>
  <em>             “You will have plenty of opportunities to show off your strengths later, cadet. For now, I suggest you focus on the task at hand. In battle, one must accept the reality of each situation as it comes.”</em>
</p><p>             “Yes, sir,” Cody sighed, the last one out the door. <em>I just thought that the more realistic our training is, the better prepared we will be.</em></p><p>             The antechamber was split in two now; a divider had been raised down the middle so that they couldn’t hear or see whether Group One had succeeded or failed.</p><p>             “Nice try sucking up to the master chief, <em>sir,</em>” Snapper said, nudging Cody.</p><p>             “Hey. He has a point,” 4339 said.</p><p>             Cody folded his arms and let Snapper’s accusation bounce off of him. Sucking up… yeah right. If he won, it would be because of good thinking and good shooting, same as any soldier.</p><p>             “You heard what she said,” 7567 said firmly, and his face was turned toward Cody. “The course was designed this way for a reason. You really think a cadet knows better than our trainers?”</p><p>             Cody turned to him and opened his mouth.</p><p><em>             “You have thirty seconds,”</em> Os Tala reminded them.</p><p>             “Okay, okay.” Cody dropped his objections and focused, facing them all and unfolding his arms. “When those doors open, we split into two groups of three, one on each side. Head for cover as fast as you can. No matter what, keep throwing droid poppers over the rollies. Seventy-Five Sixty-Seven, Fort, I want you two to try rolling some just far enough to get under their shields. Remember what we learned about different types of shielding? Some shields are designed to allow slow-moving objects to pass through.”</p><p>             “I was… going to point that out,” 7567 said.</p><p>             Cody grinned, not sure if 7567’s halting tone was because he was lying or because he had honestly thought of the same thing. He guessed the latter—the cadet didn’t seem to like him, so no sense “sucking up” as Snapper called it.</p><p>             “Why didn’t I think of that!” 6001 smacked his own helmet.</p><p>             “Everyone clear on the plan?” Cody asked. “Uh, once the rollies are down, we might be able to use their bodies as shields, or get them to go back to—”</p><p>
  <em>             “Begin program.”</em>
</p><p>             The doors opened and they all charged forward without another word.</p><p>             They were halfway to the indents before the B-1s started firing in earnest. Cody ran to the indent, and continued running headlong down the hall, firing madly with his rifle.</p><p>             “Where’s he going?!” someone yelled</p><p>             A grenade bounced past Cody and into the B-1s “Are you CRAZY?” someone hollered.</p><p>             Cody skidded to a halt right between the doors where the rollies came out. As they came and unfolded, he jumped on the nearest one’s back just as soon as it rose on its spider-like legs. In a moment the harsh staccato pinging of blaster bolts became muffled against the shield as it enveloped them.</p><p>             “YEAH CODY!” Someone outside the shield was cheering. Cody couldn’t tell which one, and the droid swiveled suddenly, nearly knocking him over.</p><p>             “Whoa!” Cody clung on and tried to wrestle the droid’s deceptively spindly-looking frame to face the B-1s. “Keep those grenades flying!” he yelled. He wasn’t sure if the others could hear him clearly. “Don’t worry about tagging me out! I’m gonna ride it through!”</p><p>             “Copy that,” someone called, and Cody saw, just for a split second, the warped figure of a cadet holding a pistol in one hand and a grenade in the other. The dark smudge of the grenade came closer as his arms strained and his feet scrabbled to find leverage on the ground. The droid to the right of Cody’s went down, shields disappearing.</p><p>             “One rolly down!” 6001 shouted a few seconds later from the other side, just as Cody hopped off the back of the droid and grabbed its gun arms instead, throwing his whole weight into trying to aim them toward the floor. Desperation had his heart hammering already. This was harder than he’d expected. “Keep moving! KEEP MOVING! We’re running out of time!”</p><p>             7567 ran forward to just behind the first dead rolly, then disappeared.</p><p>             Cody strained and yanked. The gun arms wouldn’t move! He planted his foot against the base of one of its legs, where it joined the ball, and pushed backward to straighten his legs with all his might, his arms wrapped around the gun arm. The droid’s top lurched toward him, clamping down as the guns retracted and Cody lost his grip. He fell backward for a moment, twisting. The ground rushed up at him even as his right shin stayed pinned in place, tighter, tighter as he twisted to break his fall, the bone and muscle mashed together. He heard himself cry out in pain and felt, for a moment, more confused than afraid.</p><p>             He heard the jumbled yelling of several of the other boys. He saw the droid trying to roll up into a ball around his leg, but worse, he felt the whirring pressure, letting up a little every few seconds only to come back. Seeing it, Cody wondered distantly if the bone had already broken. Was this what a broken bone felt like? It wasn’t <em>so</em> bad, he thought dizzily.</p><p>             “Get it off him!” 6001 cried, wedging his rifle in between the metal jaws and pushing down to try and lever it open.</p><p>             “Careful, you’ll blow the cartridge!” 4339 yelled.</p><p>             “He’s fine!” said Snapper.</p><p>             “I’m okay, finish the—get moving!” Cody tried to say it like a commander, but his voice came out higher and more strained than he wanted.</p><p>             The rolly suddenly unfolded; hot stabbing pain went up Cody’s leg as he pulled it free and rolled over onto his back, scrambling to sit up straight. He saw 7567 run toward him, only to change direction abruptly and sprint for the gun-well; a bolt hit him in the back and he stopped.</p><p>
  <em>             “Level reset. Your leader is the only one who was not tagged out. You need more than one soldier to save this ship.”</em>
</p><p>             4339 pulled Cody’s arm around his shoulders on the right; Fort did the same on the left</p><p>             “I think Twenty-Two Twenty-Four’s injured!” Fort said to the ceiling as they pulled him to his feet. Cody’s leg didn’t buckle when he put a small bit of weight on it. It just burned like nothing else to move the muscle at all.</p><p>             “N-no, I’m fine,” Cody stammered, pulling away from them and hissing as he took a few paces. What had he been thinking? He could have shot the droid instead of wrestling with it. It would have worked better. “See? I can walk. I’m fine! I-it’s just bruised, I think. Let’s run through the program again.”</p><p>
  <em>             “You will repeat the course, but this time Seven-Five-Six-Seven will lead. He was the only one on your team who properly prioritized his actions.”</em>
</p><p>             7567’s head jerked up at the praise.</p><p>             “But we can’t just… leave our leader behind without helping him!” 4339 argued.</p><p>             “No,” Cody panted, taking his helmet off to wipe his forehead; his face was burning. “If this were a real ship, the… the lives of everyone on board would be more important. There was nothing stopping the rest of you from going to the gun-wells. There were only four or five battle droids left! Maybe I would have lost a leg, but it’s better than all of us dying!”</p><p>             “But in a training—” 6001 began weakly.</p><p>
  <em>             “Two-Two-Two-Four is correct. Proceed to the antechamber. I will send a medic to check him for serious injury, and you will proceed without him.”</em>
</p><p>             “I’m fine, Master Chief!” Cody paced stubbornly to show that his leg was functional. The slightest chance of being kicked out of officer training so soon was unbearable. He put his helmet back on and picked his rifle up off the ground. “I can still fight! As long as no one else lets me slow down the rest of the team. If I’m slowing you down, you have to leave me behind!” He gestured with his rifle toward 4339, then at 6001. “Got it?”</p><p>             “Understood,” 7567 said firmly, stepping forward to where the others were gathered around Cody. He held his head high. “Come on, men. We have our orders.”</p><p>             Silently, they shuffled out. Cody took a deep breath and told himself his leg was already in less pain with every step. It was nothing. It wasn’t even broken.</p><p>
  <em>             “Two-Two-Two-Four, you will be allowed to continue. I have postponed your medical check up.”</em>
</p><p>             “Thank you, Master Chief,” Cody sighed.</p><p>             “You keep trying to act so tough, you’re gonna end up dying fast out there,” Snapper said.</p><p>             “I wasn’t just showing off,” Cody muttered, glancing at 7567, who acted as if he hadn’t heard.</p><p>             “Alright. What now, <em>Commander</em>?” 6001 said in a weary tone when they were back in the antechamber.</p><p>             “Line up!” 7567 commanded loudly. Cody positioned himself to face 7567 squarely.</p><p>
  <em>             “One minute.”</em>
</p><p>             “Twenty-Two Twenty-Four’s plan worked,” 7567 continued. “Mostly.”</p><p>             “It’s Cody,” Cody said by impulse, then shifted in place when 7567 raised an eyebrow at him. “But… uh, thanks. Sir.”</p><p>             “If one or two of us gets inside the droids’ shields,” 7567 said, unmoved, “we could use that protection to keep firing or rolling droid poppers at the clankers on the other side. Then we step through and leave one or two grenades behind to disable them.”</p><p>             “Those droids seem pretty smart,” said Fort. “What if they just roll toward the rest of us as soon as you’re inside their shields?”</p><p>             7567 paused for a moment, his posture finally indicating some uncertainty. “They <em>might</em> do that….”</p><p>
  <em>             “Thirty seconds.”</em>
</p><p>             “Especially if two of us try it,” he said quickly. “But I think… having one of us there when they roll out <em>might</em> distract them for long enough to give the rest of us a better chance at disabling them, the same way we did this time.”</p><p>             “Well, you’re the boss,” 4339 said simply.</p><p>             “Since I’m the leader this time, I’ll be the one to get inside the shields,” 7567 said, raising his pistols. “But I’ll need a couple of grenades.”</p><p>             “Here,” Snapper offered.</p><p>             “Thanks, trooper.” 7567 attached them to his belt. Cody wanted to laugh for some reason, but it was easy enough to hold it in when just standing at attention felt so strange. He hoped the muscles in his leg weren’t seriously damaged. “Any questions? Take the rollies out and then use them as cover.”</p><p>             “Got it,” 6001 nodded.</p><p>             “Yes, sir.” Cody saluted.</p><p>             “Let’s move out.”</p><p>             The doors opened, and they rushed forward.</p><p>             7567 careened down the center, just as Cody had, and Cody watched him between lurching steps and rifle shots. 7567 even managed to hit a clanker before skidding to a halt, flailing just slightly for balance when the rollies appeared. Then he was gone, a cadet-shaped blur behind the shields, and Cody peered out to judge the distance.</p><p>             Quickly, he adjusted his grip on the grenade, took a deep breath, and rolled it toward the droid. 6001’s grenade joined his on the floor and Cody stepped back to let 4339 take a shot with his as well. Before he had even glanced around the corner again, Fort whooped and yelled, “SHIELDS ARE DOWN!”</p><p>             Cody jumped around the corner and immediately saw that the middle droid’s shields were still up, but its guns were pointed away from them, toward the B-1s. He ran right up to the nearest rolly and pressed himself against it. 4339 crashed against him in turn, panting, and took shots on the left as Cody turned to face the rolly next to him, just in time to see 7567 fall back, out of the glow of its shielding.</p><p>             Cody stuck his gun through the bubble of light, but he heard the droid’s shots fire just seconds before his own finger pulled the trigger. The shield was down, but 7567 was already tagged out.</p><p>             Yells rose over the noise of blaster fire and Cody lobbed the rest of his droid poppers until the floor was cleared. He ducked out and ran toward the gun wells. 7567 was just getting to his feet when Cody smacked him on the back in passing. He didn’t look back, just ran, ignoring the pain, and hopped into the seat, the targets already bright and moving on the screen. In five seconds he’d already taken out two ships. Between the five of them, they turned the simulated battlefield into a scrap yard.</p><p>             Os Tala met them in the antechamber.</p><p>             “Your success was due to your cooperation,” she said sternly. “Not any one trooper’s heroics. Seven-Five-Six-Seven… I’m afraid I must reduce your individual score. Your attempt to divert the destroyer droid was completely ineffectual, and your grenade did not disable enough battle droids to warrant such a risk.”</p><p>             “What?” Cody cried.</p><p>             7567 bowed his head. “Yes, Master Chief.”</p><p>             “But he’s the one who led us to victory!” Cody said. “And… he was just doing what I did! Do<em> I</em> get a bad mark for that?”</p><p>             “Your score is up for further debate, given that you were injured. Although, if you would like to get a bad mark, that can certainly be arranged.”</p><p>             Cody came closer to attention. “No, thank you, Master Chief,” he said quietly.</p><p>             “Your risk gave the group more information about how the destroyer droids worked. Whereas Seven-Five-Six-Seven already knew that targeting them from his previous position would be effective enough, and approaching them directly was foolhardy.”</p><p>             Cody looked at 7567, uneasy. Didn’t Master Chief see how her comments might make 7567 resent him? She had a point, but it still didn’t seem fair.</p><p>             “Let us proceed to the next training course,” she said. “The medic will meet us there.”</p><p>             As they turned to walk down the hall, Cody fell in beside 7567, keeping his eyes forward just as the other cadet did.</p><p>             “Just so you know, I wasn’t trying to get you in trouble,” Cody said in an undertone.</p><p>             “I heard you were one of the best,” 7567 said stiffly. “I guess that’s why you’re allowed to take so many risks.”</p><p>             “Oh… you <em>are </em>annoyed.” Cody sighed, heart sinking. “Honestly, I think you should have gotten all the points just for being willing to risk yourself for the rest of the team. That’s what a good leader does, isn’t it?”</p><p>             “It’s not the way I do things,” 7567 muttered. “<em>I </em>try to take our exercises more seriously. Master Chief was right to penalize me for acting like that. I should have… learned from what you did, not <em>copied</em> it.”</p><p>             “Well… I’m sorry,” Cody said softly. “I still think it was brave of you.”</p><p>             “It doesn’t matter what <em>you</em> think,” 7567 whispered. “You’re not the one deciding the score. Anyway, I’m not going to keep talking to you. We’re supposed to be quiet.”</p><p>             “Okay,” Cody sighed. “Fine. But… there’s obviously a reason you were chosen for this. And I’m not just saying that because you used my plan. Thinking about what you would do in a real battle is more important than score. You take things pretty seriously, right?”</p><p>             7567 stared straight ahead and didn’t say any more. Cody hoped that meant he was mulling his words over, feeling better… not resenting him. He didn’t want that quiet intensity turned against him.</p><p>             “I…” 7567 said at last, head slightly bowed. “I would probably do things differently on a real battlefield.”</p><p>             “Probably,” Cody agreed hastily. “We all probably would. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”</p><p>             7567 didn’t look at him for several minutes, and Cody watched him closely, focusing past the pain in his leg. The other cadet eventually glanced over, and Cody met his eyes through the visor, smiling. 7567 quickly turned away again.</p><p>             As they entered the other training room and met the waiting med droid and medic-in-training, Cody wondered if he and 7567 would ever train together again. If there was a next time, he’d find a way to make up for this. But if not, at least he tried.</p><p>             “Question, Master Chief,” Cody said as he obediently stepped away from the rest of the group. “Will all of us be training together in the future?”</p><p>             “I do intend to focus on the twelve of you intensively for a time, yes,” she said. “Now, go with the medics.”</p><p>             “Yes, sir.” Cody took off his helmet and grinned at 7567. The other cadet didn’t move, but he didn’t turn away either, and that alone gave Cody a little hope.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Off Hours</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Rating: G<br/>Genre: Gen<br/>Warnings: None<br/>Summary: Still in the early stages of command track, 7567 learns a bit more about Cody, this unshakable cadet who seems to have become determined to insert himself into 7567's life considerably more than he's been invited to. Note: They are 6 years old, the equivalent of 12-13.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>             He had been dreaming of the sea. Angry, thrashing waves slamming the pillars holding up Tipoca City, some even reaching above the lowest landing pads. He and a small group of others, some from his cohort, some not, were standing in the eerie darkness of a hallway watching the endless onslaught of water, wondering how many minutes or hours they might have before the strength of the storm overpowered the strength of Kaminoan engineering and sent them all to their deaths. No one said anything, afraid to voice the fears they were all feeling and make them true.</p><p>             It wouldn’t be so bad to drown, he thought.</p><p>             “<em>Hey,</em>” someone whispered, “<em>wake up.</em>”</p><p>             He opened his eyes to a low ceiling, dim but for the gentle diffuse light glowing near the perimeter of the sleep surface that gave everything a bluish tinge.</p><p>             “Seventy-Five Sixty-Seven!” the voice came again from near his feet. He propped himself up, confused and disoriented.</p><p>             “Cody?” he said, his voice cracking from sleep. There wasn't really anyone else who would do something like this at this hour, not unless there was some kind of emergency. “What...?” His eyes squinted against the harsh brightness near the opening of his sleep pod as Cody opened it a little wider. Beyond he could hear a dull static above the usual low din of the facility’s air conditioning. “What’s going—Cody!”</p><p>             7567 only barely avoided whacking his head on the ceiling as Cody awkwardly began scrambling in through the narrow opening of the partially opened pod.</p><p>             “<em>Cody, what are you doing?</em>” 7567 hissed, rubbing his head lightly where he had felt the ceiling graze his hair. He quickly decided to abandon any thought of manually forcing Cody out of the modest space. “This is against the—”</p><p>             “<em>Shh,</em>” Cody said quickly, a finger to his lips, before resealing the pod and crawling further into the only space 7567 could consider personal. A small grin, lit softly from below, was playing at the corners of Cody’s mouth.</p><p>             “Cody, I’m trying to sleep. Really. You should too.” 7567 frowned, unsurprised when Cody dismissed his words with a small wave and half shrug before laying onto his back.</p><p>             “I couldn’t sleep,” Cody said.</p><p>             They might not have been full-grown, but they also weren’t exactly kids anymore. 7567 pressed himself against the opposite wall feeling stifled.</p><p>             There were a few moments of silence where neither of them quite looked at each other.</p><p>             “It’s storming out there,” Cody said quietly, his impish smile gone when 7567 looked back to his face.</p><p>             There was no need to elaborate. It was often storming on Kamino, but it didn’t need to be said unless it was particularly bad. The static he had heard before was a distant but detectable hum within the sealed pod; the lashes of rain must be near apocalyptic. He saw Cody from his dream, standing by his side and looking out at the sea as they waited together for the end.</p><p>             “Are you scared?” 7567 asked.</p><p>             “I don’t know...” Cody said. “I just can’t sleep for some reason, being able to hear it. It just makes me feel kind of like I have no control over anything.”</p><p>             Cody exhaled audibly, and then they lapsed into silence again. 7567 watched him look at the ceiling absently and wondered what he was thinking about. He was usually so alert and easily spoke his mind, fearless of the consequences. Seeing him like this, contemplative, almost vulnerable… For the first time, 7567 found himself feeling like Cody was someone he might be able to understand in time.</p><p>             “Hey…” Cody said, voice soft. “What do you think it’s like out there, on other planets?”</p><p>             “Mm, I don’t know. We’ve studied all the same texts. I know as much as you know.”</p><p>             “Yeah, but… I wonder what it’s like to live somewhere where you can just go outside and walk around on the planet.” His voice held some of the adventurous tone it had during training exercises, but it was soft, muted.</p><p>             “You think it feels that much different?” 7567 mumbled.</p><p>             “Yeah, don’t you? And there’s animals and plants and things, and sometimes it’s really hot and sometimes it’s snowing…. The pictures make it seem like completely different places depending on the time of year.” Cody sighed quietly. “I want to see it.”</p><p>             “I guess that does sound pretty different.”</p><p>             “And Coruscant, it doesn’t sound like anyone ever even <em>touches</em> the ground because there are so many buildings. I’m not sure I’d like that. You think we’ll ever go there?”</p><p>             “Probably.”</p><p>             “Yeah…. Hey, is there anywhere you want to go…?”</p><p><em>             Back to sleep.</em> How was Cody this awake? 7567 could sometimes barely get by on the sleep time they were allotted.</p><p>             “Well, is there?”</p><p>             “I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it.”</p><p>             “Hm.” He sounded doubtful, or disappointed. Maybe both. 7567 felt a pang of something in his chest at the sound of it. “I guess you’re tired,” Cody mumbled, definitely sounding disappointed now.</p><p>             “No,” 7567 said. <em>No?</em> “...Well… maybe. But not that tired really.”</p><p>             Cody fell quiet again. Perhaps he was trying to give 7567 a chance to fall asleep, as if he could with Cody bunched up next to him. Not only was it tight, but Cody was also very warm. 7567 could feel it even through their fatigues.</p><p>             “Are you staying in here?” 7567 said. “You’ll get in trouble if they catch you. And me too.”</p><p>             “I don’t think they will. I’ve never had a trainer open my pod, have you?”</p><p>             “No,” 7567 admitted.</p><p>             “They aren’t just going around looking to bust people for minor infractions anyway, but you probably don’t believe me. They’d rather turn a blind eye than deal with the hassle of figuring out what to do about it.”</p><p>             7567 closed his eyes. “You’re right, I don’t believe you.”</p><p>             Cody laughed quietly and 7567 suddenly felt Cody’s hand in his hair, ruffling it gently.</p><p>              “Hey,” 7567 muttered, swiping his hand away. “I’m not some kid.”</p><p>              “I know,” Cody said, the laugh still in his voice. “Don’t worry, I don’t think of you like that.”</p><p>              “Then what was that for?”</p><p>              “I don’t know, I just felt like it.”</p><p>             7567 sighed. It was strange, having a brother lying next to him like this. No one had ever done anything like it in his memory, but Cody acted like it was normal. He’d probably done it a lot of times, probably had a best friend he was missing among his old batchers. They’d probably known each other since pre-adolescence, been there for each other when their training methods started to become more severe, had helped each other cope when everything inside and outside of them seemed to be changing. 7567 realized he was probably just a stand-in for that other brother and suddenly felt an overwhelming feeling of loneliness. He probably wasn’t even a particularly good stand-in.</p><p>              “You should go back to your own bed,” 7567 said even while the words nearly suffocated him on the way out, images of Cody and a nameless brother training and laughing together filling his mind.</p><p>             “Hey, are you okay?” Cody sat up on one elbow.</p><p>             7567 quickly clamped his eyes shut and turned his face away. “Of course I am, I just… I just need to sleep, okay?” He gritted his teeth against the back of his hand, hoping to hear some sound of Cody moving back toward the end of the pod, but there was only silence. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder.</p><p>              “Hey. What’s the matter?”</p><p>             Why couldn’t he just leave? Why’d he always have to do the opposite of whatever 7567 told him to?</p><p>              “Rex….”</p><p>              “What?” 7567 asked, a note of confusion creeping past the strain.</p><p>              “It’s a name,” Cody said. “Do you like it?”</p><p>              “For who. You?”</p><p>             Cody breathed a humorless laugh. “Come on. For you.”</p><p>             7567 opened his eyes a little, though didn’t turn back to face him. “What kind of name is ‘wrecks’” he said to the wall.</p><p>              “R-e-x,” Cody said, sounding like he was rolling his eyes. “I saw it in a lesson text. It was the name of some Republic general during this one war at… the battle of something or other on Corellia… or was it Chandrila... or… um... anyway, that part’s not important.”</p><p>              “I don’t even need a name,” 7567 said in a strained whisper. “No one really does.”</p><p>              “Yeah you do, because I don’t want to keep calling you <em>Seventy-Five Sixty-Seven</em>.” His voice suddenly softened. “At least think about it. It suits you.”</p><p>              “Fine. I’ll think about it when I’m not supposed to be asleep.”</p><p>             7567 breathed, trying to calm the painful feeling in his chest without Cody noticing. A rumble broke into the quiet, a deep bass 7567 could feel more than hear, a wildness that was out-of-place in their controlled little world.</p><p>              “It wasn’t thundering earlier,” Cody said, an unsteadiness creeping into his voice. He suddenly flopped back down onto his back. “Agh. I need a distraction.”</p><p>              “Why don’t we just try to sleep,” 7567 tried again.</p><p>              “No… but I have an idea.”</p><p>             7567 glanced over, wondering what Cody could mean, but he was already crawling back toward the entrance to the pod. It unsealed at the press of the button and Cody pushed it open just wide enough to crawl out onto the adjacent ladder, then peered back in before 7567 even had a chance to feel the bittersweet relief of being left alone.</p><p>              “Well? Come on, it’s fine,” Cody whispered. “No one’s going to notice.”</p><p>              “What—Cody, I can’t. You know I can’t. You shouldn’t either.”</p><p>             Cody scoffed. “You don’t even know what it is yet.”</p><p>              “I don’t have to, it’s obviously against the rules.”</p><p>              “Trust me?” Cody held his hand out, that small smile returning to his face despite the fear of the storm he seemed to have. If he was afraid, why was he leaving the pod? There was one less layer of quiet and protection out there.</p><p>             7567 looked into Cody’s hopeful eyes and warm grin and sighed loudly. “I can’t believe this. This is the only time I’m doing anything like this. If anything bad happens—”</p><p>              “It won’t. Now come on!” He waved 7567 forward enthusiastically and then crept down the ladder some to give 7567 space.</p><p>             Really, why was he doing this? He was supposed to be asleep—he <em>wanted</em> to be asleep. He was definitely going to regret this tomorrow even if they didn’t get caught. Yet for some reason he found himself mounting the ladder and following Cody down to the floor, his chest still feeling a little tight.</p><p>             He could hear the rain much more clearly out here. It was always an odd feeling to hear anything unplanned within the facility’s walls. It was such a deeply controlled environment that stood apart from nature in almost every possible way. Only the planet itself had the power to disrupt that.</p><p>             Cody glanced at the ceiling, brow furrowed, then looked at 7567 and jerked his head toward the hallway. 7567 followed, the discomfort migrating from his chest to his stomach as he thought of Master Chief’s dispassionate gaze peering down at them from some unseen observation window.</p><p>             He had rarely ventured into the facility during his sleep cycle—only a few times when he was younger and summoned for an unplanned physical. But while he and Cody and the rest of their cohort slept, other groups cycled into their training areas. It was a place that never truly slept because of course, that would be an inefficient use of space. 7567 was deeply unconvinced he and Cody wouldn’t be noticed creeping around, but at least they wouldn’t stand out just for being awake. Still, the Kaminoans had an uncanny ability to tell them apart on sight even when they weren’t wearing identifiers, and 7567 still hadn’t figured out how; even he couldn’t tell most of his brothers apart by looks alone.</p><p>             Cody seemed unconcerned as always by any of these thoughts, and led him down a main hallway, walking with purpose as though he was supposed to be there. 7567 tried to follow suit, though it felt like the more he focused on how he walked, the more suspicious he looked. When they reached a junction, Cody took them left where they usually went right, down a hall 7567 had never seen—he hadn’t even thought to wonder what <em>was</em> this way. Just how much did Cody sneak around when he was supposed to be sleeping or studying?</p><p>             The hallway was empty, curved and narrow, more like a side-passage. As they followed the curve, the muted din grew louder into a distant roar; 7567 nearly walked into Cody when he suddenly stopped around a sharper corner. This section had wide windows facing the northwestern discs of the facility, but it was obscured by the sheets of water being thrown from the sky beyond the eave of an upper level.</p><p>             Cody walked close to the windows, watching how the ocean waves passed under the facility in a mesmerizing march of crests and troughs. The obscured clouds emitted an eerie flickering glow as hidden lightning traveled through them, closely followed by deep and growling thunder. Despite how in-set the hallway was under the upper level, the whipping wind still managed to throw an alarming amount of rain against the windows. Even 7567 found his pulse quickening as they passed, his brain helpfully supplying images of the glass shattering inward, spraying slick shards and water in every direction.</p><p>             He followed Cody, concentrating on Cody’s back to keep himself focused on where he was going. Anyone else might have thought Cody was looking out at the storm with mere curiosity, but 7567 already knew him well enough to know the tiny furrow between his eyebrows had greater meaning. Cody standing tall in the face of his fears… maybe that’s why he’d been selected for command track. Most of their brothers would face their fears if they had to. Few would willingly walk into them. Fewer still while holding their head high, using the source of their fear as its own distraction.</p><p>             They kept to perimeter hallways for several minutes, thankfully seeing neither Kaminoan nor cadet. Above the rain, 7567 could hear the echo of life coming from the larger training and education halls just beyond view. But the further they walked from their section, the more 7567 felt a sickening pull to his stomach, and the more Cody was starting to look like someone it was more stupid than brave to follow.</p><p>             When they reached the next junction, 7567 stopped. “<em>Cody!</em>” he hissed to his back, now several paces ahead.</p><p>             Cody stopped and looked back at him, then around as if 7567 was alerting him to something dangerous he hadn’t noticed. Cody closed the distance back between them, a guilty tilt to his eyebrows, a hesitant grin. “What?” he said quietly.</p><p>             “I’m going back,” 7567 said before Cody’s friendly act could change his mind.</p><p>             “We’re almost there. It’s literally just down that way.” He gestured off to the hall splitting right from the junction.</p><p>             “I don’t know where we’re going; I barely even know where we <em>are</em>. I’ve never been in this section.”</p><p>             Cody shrugged. “It’s just more training halls.”</p><p>             “Then what are we doing here?!” 7567 demanded, though the stern tone he tried to affect lost some edge as it caught in his throat.</p><p>             Cody put a hand on his shoulder. “Rex, relax—”</p><p>             “My name isn’t <em>Rex!</em>” 7567 pushed Cody’s arm away and turned, taking a step toward the direction they had come.</p><p>             “I’m just trying to be your friend….”</p><p>             It was soft, barely detectable above the lashes of rain now that 7567 had stepped away. The anxiety that had gathered in his stomach raced up his spine and gripped his lungs. What if after he left, Cody decided not to talk to him anymore? Wouldn’t that be a good thing? Wasn’t that what he wanted, to be left the space and solitude to focus, to excel?</p><p>             7567 took a breath, hoping his voice would be steady despite the chill he felt inside. “I don’t need a name, and I don’t need a friend. I never needed them before and I don’t need them now just because I’m in command track.”</p><p>             He felt Cody's hand grip his arm as he came around in front of him, his eyebrows knit together, his easy demeanor gone. “Why are you saying something like that?”</p><p>             “Because it’s true. It’s not my fault everyone else is more worried about fitting in than becoming the best soldier they can be.” 7567 tried to keep facing Cody, to meet the challenge of his concerned eyes with strength, but his eyes dropped at the end before he could stop himself.</p><p>             “Rex—”</p><p>             “I don’t want to talk about this out here! I just want—I just—”</p><p>             7567 felt Cody press into him, press their chests together, his arms briefly encircling him. He pulled back before 7567 even had the chance to react.</p><p>             “You can have both. A friend and being a good soldier, I mean. Anyway, if you don’t want to stand out here, let's just go the rest of the way.”</p><p>             Cody still had a hand on his arm, pulled him in a coaxing and gentle manner toward the hall that split off to the right at the junction. 7567 let himself be led, feeling overwhelmed by the casual confidence with which Cody could insert himself into 7567’s space, both emotionally and literally. 7567 had no real experience to draw from in how to handle someone who wouldn’t let himself be pushed away.</p><p>             Cody's hand slid down to his as he led him through the entrance to a large training room, currently in use by cadets their own age. They were not wearing fatigues but rather the slightly padded sparring uniform. 7567’s right hand leapt up to grasp the front of his shirt, while Cody tightened his grasp on his left. 7567 tried to pull it away, tried to lunge backward out of the hall, but Cody merely glanced at him and pulled him further in. </p><p>             The two partnered cadets nearest stopped when they noticed them, and 7567 could already feel a line of sweat forming at his hairline. </p><p>             One of the cadets pulled his mouth guard out. “Hey…? Are you with us? I didn’t notice anyone missing earlier, but….” He glanced over the many other groups, an empty gesture given that no one was recognizable if the identifiers on their chest or leg weren’t visible.</p><p>             Cody smiled easily. “Thought I would come check on how you’re all managing without me.”</p><p>             “Wait… Cody? I never thought I would see you again—truly!” The cadet's eyes lit with a grin, and then he turned toward 7567. “And who are you?”</p><p>             Other nearby pairs were stopping to watch the exchange. 7567 searched through the groups of bodies, and eventually—there. A Kaminoan trainer, down on the floor with the rest of the cadets, assessing their form.</p><p>             “Let go!” 7567 cried, trying desperately to pull his hand away, but Cody wasn’t letting go, his hand having moved to 7567’s wrist.</p><p>             “Okay then,” the cadet said, eyebrow and lips quirked. </p><p>             “Rex, it’s fine, <em>trust</em> me!”</p><p>             “Why should I?!”</p><p>             The Kaminoan had finally noticed the disturbance and 7567 saw his large dark eyes move across them, looking at each in turn over everyone's heads.</p><p>             7567 felt the blood drain from his face, and his breath came short. They were going to be returned to Master Chief. They would lose their place in command track—maybe even be forbidden from continuing to deployment. Terminated. Because they had proven themselves disobedient, because Cody had convinced him he could be trusted, and because 7567 had let himself be distracted from his purpose by the idea of a friend. The trainer was weaving through the cadets their way, but there was no point in trying to escape now. Like all the other Kaminoans, 7567 was sure this one somehow already knew his designation.</p><p>             “Everyone, please return to the exercise,” he said when he reached the edge of the group, his long arm gesturing in a graceful arc. A few of the pairs of onlookers reluctantly wandered away, but the two cadets that had originally noticed them remained. The trainer didn’t scold them, and instead gazed down at Cody and said, “Cadet Two-Two-Two-Four, this is an unexpected visit.”</p><p>             7567, who had only just moved to stand at attention despite how much he felt like shrinking away, broke the stance immediately as he turned his head, eyes wide.</p><p>             “Yeah, Cody,” the cadet from before added. “You get kicked out of command track already?”</p><p>             “Don’t be ridiculous, Cadet Two-Seven-Three-Seven.” the Kaminoan said. His voice was higher than other males, even of his soft-spoken species. “I am certain he is excelling in his assignment. He must have some other reason for being here.”</p><p>             The Kaminoan hadn’t even acknowledged 7567. His heart hammered in his chest, his mind searching for an explanation for this unexpected exchange. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. This wasn’t how things were done.</p><p>             “Command training is going great so far, actually,” Cody said. “I just came to see everyone and introduce my friend.” He looked to 7567 with a warm smile that was completely at odds with 7567’s feeling of panic. 7567 snapped back to attention under the trainer’s gaze, hoping he couldn’t see just how fast he was breathing, though he would surely notice the sheen of sweat on his forehead.</p><p>             “Hello, friend,” the Kaminoan said. “I am Instructor Nasu Lan.”</p><p>             “Command Cadet Seventy-Five Sixty-Seven, sir,” 7567 said breathlessly.</p><p>             Cody nudged him. “His name’s Rex, though. Anyway Rex, you can relax.”</p><p>             7567 frowned at him, feeling foolish and betrayed. How could Cody not see how wrong this all was? Was he playing some kind of cruel joke on him—is this what having friends was like?</p><p>             “We are practicing sparring form seven, set four,” Nasu Lan said, attention off 7567 and back to Cody and his trainees. “You and Cadet Seven-Five-Six-Seven may join if you wish. I’m certain your former cohort would not mind the example. Is this not your sleep cycle, however?”</p><p>             “Eh,” Cody shrugged. </p><p>             7567 wanted to interrupt this, wanted to say <em>yes, this is our sleep cycle, and we’re leaving. I didn’t want to come here in the first place. This was Cody’s idea and he forced me to be here.</em> But no words managed to escape his mouth. Speaking so willfully in front of a Kaminoan and making excuses for poor behavior went entirely against the respect for authority that was required for military order.</p><p>             “We’ll just hang around a bit and then go back. Don’t mind us.”</p><p>             The Kaminoan dipped his head in acknowledgment, then drifted back toward the center of the training hall, surveying the scene with his hands folded behind him.</p><p>             “So Rex—”</p><p>             “No,” 7567 said, his voice as tense as his chest felt. “What was <em>that?</em> What’s going on?!”</p><p>             “There’s nothing to worry about!” He glanced at 2737.</p><p>             The cadet took a step forward, shrugging a shoulder. “Yeah, don’t worry… Cody was practically running this place before he left.”</p><p>             7567 stared at them both, glancing between them fitfully. “You're crazy. Maybe this is all a dream. Maybe I’m actually still in my sleep pod where I belong.”</p><p>             Cody rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic. What’s so weird about that? Why do you think I’m in command track?”</p><p>             “Well I’m in command track, and it’s <em>not</em> because I ever became some… some trainer’s <em>pet!</em>”</p><p>             The frustrated frown was returning to Cody’s face. Finally something that made sense. “Look, I just helped out, okay? Nasu Lan tries but…” Cody lowered his voice, “he was supposed to be a geneticist, and he’s just not very good at this kind of thing. Not everyone is as skilled as Master Chief.”</p><p>             “And so you just took things into your own hands. Of course you did. I don’t even know why I’m surprised. Let me guess, you also designed the training regimen yourself?”</p><p>             Cody huffed. “No! ...I just got him to get rid of the boring and ineffectual parts.”</p><p>             “You know, this explains so much.”</p><p>             “What is that supposed to mean?”</p><p>             “You’re always walking around like nothing can touch you, like you can just… just tell Master Chief how to administer her program or, or think you can break whatever rules you want and walk around the facility whenever without consequences!”</p><p>             “Rex—”</p><p>             “This isn’t how things are! Don’t you get that?! If anyone had acted like this in my cohort, he would have disappeared, and some did for less!”</p><p>             “What do you mean ‘disappeared’?”</p><p>             “What do you <em>think?!</em> Do you really not know?!”</p><p>             “You really think they would kill someone for something like this? Come on, Rex, we’re worth more than that.”</p><p>             7567 clenched his fists, felt the pressure of moisture building under his eyes and clamped them shut. He only just realized he was shaking, his breaths feeling choppy and insufficient. He could feel the eyes of Cody and the other nearby cadets on him, and his face burned.</p><p>              “<em>Hey!</em> Get back to your training.” </p><p>             7567 opened his eyes and saw the onlooking cadets quickly disperse with hushed apologies and excuses directed at Cody. He sighed roughly at their backs, then turned back to 7567, the annoyance in his frown fading to concern.</p><p>              “Sorry,” Cody said. “Maybe you’re right. I probably shouldn’t have brought you here... I should have just left you alone like you asked.”</p><p>             In his chest, the pressure turned into an icy knife. He saw himself walking back to their section while Cody remained to socialize, shrugging him off. Continuing training without Cody reaching out to him, being only distantly polite, having moved on to someone new. No longer catching him looking at him with that disarming smile, and wondering what it was he saw in him. Cody had been the only one to make an effort, maybe the only one who ever would. If 7567 left now, things would just go back to how they had always been before command track, so why did his chest feel like he imagined getting stabbed would feel?</p><p>             Cody was watching him, waiting for some kind of reaction. 7567 looked down and away, unable to meet his eyes anymore, hardly able to tell now the source of his fear.</p><p>             “I guess… if you want to go back now…” Cody began.</p><p>             “Just tell me why you brought me here,” 7567 mumbled. “You could have come by yourself, so why bring someone like me?”</p><p>             Cody stepped closer and leaned in so they couldn’t be overheard, his hand coming up to 7567’s shoulder. “What do you mean ‘someone like you’? I brought you ‘cause I wanted you to know more about me, Rex. I’m not trying to scare you or get you in trouble, you know that.”</p><p>             “You don’t have to keep calling me that,” 7567 said to his feet, feeling heat in his face.</p><p>             “Do you want to meet some people now that we’re here, or do you want to go back? I really want you to stay.”</p><p>             7567 glanced up and saw Cody was giving him his full attention, concern evident in his face. If 7567 said he wanted to leave, he could tell Cody wouldn’t try to talk him out of it anymore. But although Cody’s eyes were the same as millions of others, there was something about them that made 7567 second-guess himself whenever Cody tried to take the lead. At the same time, more than any trainer’s commands or promises of reward, they made 7567 want to push himself to be braver and stronger than he felt.</p><p>             “CODY!”</p><p>             In a sudden flash of color and sparring gear, someone dived at Cody, arms clasping around him in a tight grip before Cody could defend himself. 7567 nearly fell from trying to get out of the cadet's path. </p><p>             “I thought I was never gonna see you again!”</p><p>             “Nash?” Cody choked out. “Can’t breathe—”</p><p>             The cadet loosened his grip, barely, and beamed at Cody with a brighter smile than 7567 had seen on a brother in a long time. “You came to see me!”</p><p>             “Whew. Yeah! Surprised you, huh?” Cody slapped the cadet's back and moved to put his hands on his arms, reflecting Nash's big grin. 7567 could sense Cody’s body language loosening, the tension that had been created between him and 7567 easing as he took in the other cadet's excitement. The chill 7567 had been feeling before was turning into slag in the pit of his stomach. </p><p>             So Cody did have a best friend. And his name was Nash—it sounded like something Cody would come up with. Logically, 7567 knew he had just been a friend of convenience since their options in command track were limited. He <em>knew</em> that and yet….</p><p>             “How are things going?” Cody had fully turned his attention away from 7567, forgetting they had been talking about something important… forgetting that he had been waiting for an answer. </p><p>             “Oh, not too bad. We’ve moved on to form seven. <em>Most </em>of the guys have been keeping up.” Nash sighed, a little fatigue creeping into his face now that he wasn’t attacking Cody with enthusiasm. “It’s just not the same without you here. Command track better appreciate you, ‘cause I’m still not over you leaving.”</p><p>             Cody laughed awkwardly, running his hand through his hair, but he was grinning. 7567 stood there, emotions he didn’t want to think about flitting through his mind, trying to land. The feeling of wanting to run away, back to the safety and solitude of his sleeping pod had returned with new intensity. He felt stupid for thinking for even a second he was actually, maybe, someone’s favorite brother. Felt stupid for wanting it enough to let this hurt him. </p><p>             “How are things with Twenty-Five Fifty? How’s he been doing since I left?”</p><p>             “Oh yeah, he’s been moping too since you transferred.” Nash waved a hand dismissively. “We’ve been commiserating over dinner at <em>least</em> once a week.”</p><p>             “Ah, I feel kind of bad, actually, but….” Cody shrugged, palms up. “I meant to come sooner, I just haven’t really had much chance to get away. So how about Twenty-Nine Eighty-One?”</p><p>             “Struggling since you left but he’ll be alright.”</p><p>             “And Beck? Or isn’t he going by Camo now?”</p><p>             2737 grimaced. “Eh, Two-Four-Forty has taken him on. Look, we all wish you were still here. You wanna come see everyone, right?”</p><p>             “Yes, I must check in with my students,” he said, puffing his chest out a little, then dropping it with a laugh.</p><p>              “Oh brother. So who’s your friend then, another hopeless case?”</p><p>             7567’s cheeks burned, not just from the insult, but also from a spark of anger, and somewhere under that, a feeling of shame, or maybe betrayal, wondering if Cody saw him that way.</p><p>             Just as Cody said, “He’s definitely not,” 7567 said, “We’re not friends.” </p><p>             There was silence between them, the yelling of sparring cadets suddenly loud and obvious. Cody was looking at him, his lips pressed together. 7567 felt a stab of guilt, realizing Cody had been about to defend him, but let his frustration with the entire night smother it. He kept his expression harsh and serious, and turned back to face Nash.</p><p>             “Oh, uh, um… sorry,” Nash said awkwardly, glancing between them, but mostly at Cody. “I just thought since you came in together….”</p><p>             “It was an accident, and actually, I was just leaving.” 7567’s voice was low and strained from the effort of keeping it steady. He didn’t wait for a response before turning and stepping toward the entrance to the hall.</p><p>             “Wait, Rex—Seventy-Five Sixty-Seven—!” 7567 could hear the hurt confusion in Cody’s voice behind him.</p><p>              “You asked if I wanted to go back, and I do,” 7567 said without turning around. “You probably forgot you even asked, though….”</p><p>              “So you really don’t think of me as a friend, then…? How can you….” He trailed off, sounding a little lost. “Are you really that mad?” he asked in a small voice.</p><p>              “Just go hang out with your real friends, and try not to die on the way back,” 7567 said, hoping it would sound snippy enough for Cody to get the idea, but instead it came out weak, diminishing at the end as if the air had been sucked out of him.</p><p>             7567 didn’t wait for a reply before he quickly left the hall, sadness and relief mixing into a disorienting stew in his stomach. He concentrated on his breathing and began backtracking the way they had come, hoping against hope all of the halls were still empty. He had nearly forgotten about the storm, forgotten how loud it was outside the training hall, echoing down the corridors from the windowed perimeter walkways. 7567 walked toward those exposed and vulnerable windows, trying to project the air of purpose and intention that had brought them there, the heavy lashes of rain covering all sound of his footsteps. </p><p>             Calm foundations holding chaos at bay—that's what 7567 felt. His face was set and stoic, but inside he could feel his chest still tight and his mind in turmoil, throwing a barrage of anxious questions and imagined scenarios at him—getting caught by Master Chief, being disciplined or worse, Cody giving him a wide berth and warning the others away from trying to get close. Maybe it wouldn't matter anyway. 7567 might not even be in command track anymore after this adventure, and how fitting would it be if he was the one caught and Cody got away with it? Things always seemed to happen like that—life rewarded the same people constantly, while the rest of them had to survive trial after trial.</p><p>             The return to their section was mercifully uneventful outside of the occasional flash of lightning and slow rumble of thunder that managed to be heard above the rain. 7567 exhaled, feeling half the tension that had built up leaving his body, though much still remained when his thoughts wandered back to Cody, back with his old batchers and best friend, probably laughing and not worrying anymore about what 7567 might be thinking or feeling. Not having 7567 dragging him down.</p><p>             Right as he crossed the threshold to the sleeping area, a massive thunderclap broke through the layers of the facility, so much so that the floor shook, a deep vibration under the audible crash that nearly rattled the walls. A yelp erupted and was quickly stifled behind him—7567 spun around defensively, heart hammering his chest. </p><p>             Cody was looking away, rubbing his left arm with his right hand, eyes wandering over the walls and up to the ceiling.</p><p>             “Wow,” he said quietly. </p><p>             “What are you doing here,” 7567 said, mouth oddly dry, pulse skipping beats.</p><p>             Cody’s eyes finally came back to meet his, a gentle furrow still in his brow. “Well….” he trailed off, almost timidly.</p><p>             “What about your friends, you just left them?”</p><p>             “Rex—Seventy-Five Sixty-Seven—you…. I’m sorry,” he said, looking away. “I shouldn’t have pushed you so much.”</p><p>             “I still don’t get why you did it in the first place. I obviously didn’t want to do any of this…. Why was it so important I come with you?”</p><p>             “I dunno,” he mumbled. “I just wanted…. Do you really not think of me as a friend at all…?”</p><p>             7567 had never seen him this unsure, vulnerable. It made him feel guilty, uncomfortable… frustrated. Even like this, it still felt like Cody was controlling the conversation. 7567 sighed, suddenly weary and wondering what Cody would say if 7567 said <em>yeah, we aren’t friends, so you can stop trying...</em>. Would that really stop him, even if 7567 <em>did </em>want him to?</p><p>             “I don’t know,” 7567 said instead. It felt the most honest.</p><p>             “Oh… well, I’ll try to be a better one. And maybe you’ll change your mind.” Cody gathered himself into a deep sigh, then turned toward the ladder to his sleeping pod. 7567 watched him, trying to make sense of the night and what Cody was trying to communicate with everything he had said and done. He felt as incomprehensible and unpredictable to 7567 as ever.</p><p>             Before Cody slipped into his pod, 7567 heard a small “night, Rex….” almost too quiet to reach him.</p><p>             Cody locked himself away, and 7567 stood there alone, all still, sterile, and quiet but the din of the rain. 7567 returned to his own pod, safe at last, with less time than he would have liked to rest before the next day’s training. But even as tired as he felt, instead of sleeping, he stared in the muted low light at the ceiling of his pod, going over the last hour, everything that had happened and been said, the image of Cody and Nash embracing straying into his thoughts. He didn’t know what else he expected or why it bothered him so much; he hadn’t done anything to earn Cody’s loyalty, and had actively done more to do the opposite.</p><p>             Cody just made him frustrated, and even though he acted like he cared about 7567’s opinions, he always ended up going with his own ideas. And there were other things, things 7567 felt like he might never relate to—his absurd naivety, his unguarded affection…. </p><p>             Cody seemed fearless, but 7567 was beginning to realize there was more to it than that. Cody wasn’t afraid of Master Chief, of speaking his mind or flouting regulations; he never had to fear being lonely or friendless, didn’t have to worry about whether men would ever follow him, because he already knew they would. But what had driven him to crawl into the small space of 7567’s pod in the first place? It was the thunder, the storm—the wildness of nature, which didn’t discriminate between commanders and Kaminoans and cadets. Untamable and powerful beyond anything people could ever create. Cody had said it, offhand almost, revealing something much deeper than he probably intended: he was afraid of the storm because what he feared most was a lack of control. Somehow, Cody had still not realized that they had none, and never would. </p><p>             Although 7567 had wished often that Cody would get some kind of dose of reality, he found in that moment that he didn't want to see what would happen to Cody when he did. So much of what 7567 had figured out about who Cody was depended on this unlikely feeling of invincibility and possibility that seemed to define his actions. 7567 could barely imagine what Cody would be like without it. It was undoubtedly what made him shake off 7567’s rebuffs over and over like they were nothing but drops of rain. </p><p>             7567’s eyelids were finally feeling heavy, and although he was still not completely at ease, he fell asleep, soothed by the knowledge that Cody’s confidence would give them both another chance tomorrow.</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. In A Different Light</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Rating: PG<br/>Genre: Gen, drama<br/>Warnings: Animal attack, creature death<br/>Summary: It's one of their first off-world training exercises, and things quickly go awry, leaving Rex tense and Cody defensive as their approaches to field emergencies clash. Note: They are late 6 years old, or the equivalent of 13 year olds.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>            It was dark when they arrived on Kesh, and it was dark when they set up camp. And now, as 7567 rearranged damp tinder under a flashlight beam, he heard a brother screaming and nearly jumped out of his skin.</p><p>            “What?!” one of the others gasped. “Who was that?” The beam left the tinder pile and swept uselessly around the walls of their snow cave.</p><p>            “Rocky, stop waving that thing around!” hissed 588. He’d been double-checking the ventilation hole in the roof. “Here, let me!”</p><p>            “Had to be either Cody or Quickdraw,” 7567 said, feeling his way toward the dim bluish smudge of the exit. He picked up his rifle and switched on the attached light, heart hammering. “Come on!”</p><p>            “Wait! One at a time!”</p><p>            7567 was the first one to poke his head out from the cave and sweep the edge of the snow pit with his flashlight. No movement. He crawled up the side and peered over the edge, his breath fogging the air.</p><p>            “I don’t see him,” he whispered.</p><p>            “QUICKDRAW?” 588 yelled.</p><p>            Another scream that quickly choked off.</p><p>            “Over there!” Rocky scrambled up and led the charge across the tundra to their left. Their flashlights cast a bright yellow reflection from two, then three, then four eyes, as a dark and furry, fanged face turned toward them, the cadet’s arms and legs dangling from its jaws.</p><p>            “Oh no,” 7567 breathed. “NO YOU DON’T!” he yelled, opening fire on the beast.</p><p>            The beast turned and began to lope away on four long, shaggy legs.</p><p>            “LET HIM GO!!” 588 shrieked, running after it. “LET HIM GO!”</p><p>            Rocky followed but didn’t lift his gun. “Careful! Don’t hit Quickdraw! Rex, try to hit its legs!”</p><p>            “I got him!” 7567 said as the beast wobbled and fell. Another muffled wail rose over the snow. Some distant part of his mind noticed: the name Cody had picked for him was starting to stick.</p><p>            They fired on the thing until it stopped trying to get up, and then some. 588 reached it first.</p><p>            “Quickdraw? Quickdraw! Say something! You still alive?!”</p><p>            “Nng!” Quickdraw groaned, and 7567 shuddered as 588 pulled at the fangs clamped around his friend.</p><p>            “Guys, help me!” 588 grunted, pushing and pulling at the creature’s mouth.</p><p>            “I-it came out of no—where, I di-didn’t see it,” Quickdraw gulped, face down, voice shaking wildly. “I think… I think I’m okay. I think my arm’s broken… my chest hurts.”</p><p>            7567 and Rocky moved to 588’s side.</p><p>            “One of us should watch to make sure there aren’t any more,” 7567 said, trying to keep his voice steady as he turned his back to his fellow cadets.</p><p>            “Yeah. Yeah, good idea, keep watch, Rex,” Rocky said. “Just hang on, Quickdraw, we’ll get you out of here.”</p><p>            “Cody’s still out there,” 7567 said, half to himself. Fear buzzed along his spine.</p><p>            “Okay, we both have to lift at the same time.”</p><p>            “Maybe step closer—get your hand lower—yeah that’s it. Okay, on three.”</p><p>            7567 tapped his comm. “Cody! Cody, come in!”</p><p>            “Three!” The cry was followed by straining grunts and a wheezing noise. “Rex! Rex, hurry, pull him out!”</p><p>            Rex set his rifle down within reach and grabbed Quickdraw under the arms to tug him free. It wasn’t easy—the cadet’s armor had cracked and kept catching on the creature’s bottom fangs. He gave a muffled scream through clenched teeth as Rex shifted position, locked hands around his chest, heaved up and backward, and both of them fell over in the snow.</p><p>            Quickdraw was half-sobbing, half-laughing hysterically. “I’m alive… I’m sti<em>—still alive!</em> I can’t believe it. Ow…agh.”</p><p>            “Can you get up?” Rex panted as he sat up and crawled forward to grab his rifle.</p><p>            “I thought I was—I thought I was gonna die,” Quickdraw coughed, first a breathless and then a wet racking cough. He sniffed, his voice dazed. “I thought I was dead.”</p><p>            “Get a hold of yourself,” Rocky laughed shakily. “You’re gonna be fine. Does your back hurt?”</p><p>            “YEAH!” Quickdraw blurted in a shaky laugh that turned into a groan.</p><p>            “Well, is it broken?”</p><p>            “I don’t think so… I don’t know.”</p><p>            “Okay, okay,” 588 said, running his hands all over the battered torso of Quickdraw’s armor. “I don’t see—wait! Yeah, there it is, you’re bleeding. Oh no….”</p><p>            “Let’s get him back to the cave,” Rex interjected, nerves jumping whenever his rifle’s light crossed a large drift of snow and tricked him into thinking it had moved. “Then we can take his armor off and check. I don’t want to be out here if another one of those things comes back.”</p><p>            “Yeah,” Rocky agreed.</p><p>            “Right!” 588 said, a bit too loudly. “Come on, I got you.”</p><p>            While 588 and Rocky helped Quickdraw onto his feet and braced him on either side, Rex kept his eyes on the tundra and distractedly tapped his comm again</p><p>            “Cody, are you there? Cody? Cody, come in! Cadet Twenty-Two Twenty-Four!”</p><p>            “He’s not responding?” 588 puffed as they started back toward the cave.</p><p>            “No,” Rex said with a sinking feeling. “Cody! Come in, Cody!”</p><p>            “Well, on the bright side, if that thing’s edible, he doesn’t need to scout for any other food sources for a while,” Rocky laughed nervously. “Let’s just hope he didn’t <em>become</em> a food source.”</p><p>            “That’s not funny,” Rex muttered.</p><p>            “Yeah, not really,” 588 said shakily.</p><p>            “Sorry,” Rocky sighed and tapped his own comm. “Cody? Cody, are you there?”</p><p>            They kept calling for him until they were back at the cave entrance. It took Quickdraw an excruciatingly long time to crawl inside, and he collapsed on the floor of the cave, shaking.</p><p>            “I feel sick,” he said.</p><p>            “Let’s check out the damage,” 588 sighed.</p><p>            Rex held the light while 588 and Rocky helped Quickdraw out of his armor and tucked an emergency blanket underneath him.</p><p>            588 exhaled loudly once he’d finished dabbing blood away from Quickdraw’s belly. “The cuts are pretty deep.”</p><p>            “I think his arm<em> is</em> broken,” Rocky said solemnly, feeling the bone. “Maybe a rib or two.”</p><p>            “Keep him warm.” Rex grabbed his helmet and put it on. “Stay inside and try to get the fire going. I’m gonna go find Cody.”</p><p>            “Rex,” Rocky said uneasily. “He’s probably….”</p><p>            “We told him not to wander too far without checking in,” Rex insisted. “So it won’t take too long to find him.”</p><p>            “If you go out there alone, you’ll probably just get eaten too!” Rocky argued. “I’ll go with you.”</p><p>            “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.” Rex ducked to crawl out of the cave. “Stay here and get help for Quickdraw.”</p><p>            “Rex! <em>Wait!</em>”</p><p>            “Try to contact the Master Chief while I’m gone!” Rex called back from the other side. “If I don’t find him within two klicks, I’ll come back.”</p><p>            “It’s easy to get lost out there!” Rocky warned. “Remember?”</p><p>            “So one of you come out every five minutes and signal with your flashlight. I’ll follow it back.” Rex scrambled up the side of the pit and onto the tundra. He scanned the area for reflecting eyes, and saw only scrubby plant life and the glint of water between the mounds of melted and refrozen snow. The sky was clear above, full of stars and—a strange hot shock flushed through him at the sight of faint streaks of colored light that appeared and then vanished. Then they appeared again, more brightly, like the reflection of a hidden pool of water rippling on the ceiling. Green… a very pale green.</p><p>            He pulled his eyes away at the rustle of snow to his right, but it was just the wind slapping a bush’s branch against its neighbor. Rex trudged forward, wondering whether he should call out for Cody. His voice might scare the predators away… or it might lure them closer. It was hard to tell.</p><p>            A hundred paces out, Rex began to wonder if this was a good idea after all. He looked back, fingers cramping around his rifle, and could barely make out the massive boulder their snow cave was piled against. But Cody was out here somewhere… and if they got pulled out because of Quickdraw’s injury, Rex couldn’t just leave him behind.</p><p>            With a deep breath, he headed to the right, circling their camp. The snow thinned out here and Rex found himself breathless, face-down on the ground after slipping on a patch of wet ice. Five paces after that he tried to cross a frozen stream and ended up knee-deep in ice water, grateful that his suit was waterproof.</p><p>            Nothing moved on the tundra except the water and the strange lights above. They were just haunting distractions—Rex felt his nerves buzzing as he constantly jerked his head back and forth with every murmur of the wind.</p><p>            “Cody,” he muttered into his comm. The snow crunching under his foot seemed to double and he jerked to look behind him. Nothing. His light stretched out and faded into the hollow emptiness. “Cody, if you’re ignoring me, I swear… I’m going to make you <em>wish</em> you got eaten by an ice monster.” He raised his voice a hitch, tentatively at first, then more strongly. “Cody? Cody…! Cody, this is Seventy-Five Sixty-Seven! Cody, this is Rex! Say something!”</p><p>            He tried to brace himself for what he’d find. Cody could be nothing more than a smear of blood on the snow, or he could be strewn around in bits, just the organs and bones the beast didn’t want to eat. It would probably spit out his armor. Rex imagined bloodied bits of gear and shuddered, feeling sick. “Cody!”</p><p>            He could be alive. He could have escaped; maybe his comm was broken or lost somehow. Maybe he was playing a prank. Rex quickened his pace to match his heartbeat, half convinced of both extremes at the same time. A prickling at his back made him glance over his shoulder and run wildly for several meters before he got a hold of himself and faced the unmoving patch of vegetation that his mind had turned into a monster. Every shadow was starting to look like a body. Every bit of reddish moss made his stomach squirm, and there was a lot of it.</p><p>            The lights came flashing from the base. He stared at them, fighting the impulse to go running back.</p><p>            He took deep breaths. Panic was unacceptable. “I’m a soldier,” Rex whispered to himself. “I’m a soldier. I’m a soldier.” He kept walking. “Soldiers don’t panic. Cody, come in! Cody….”</p><p>            Another outline against the deep blue horizon caught his eye, almost like a human sitting on a rock, but it wasn’t moving. Just another trick of the eyes, Rex told himself, but he couldn’t take more than two steps before turning back. Hesitantly, he edged closer to it—it wasn’t within range of his rifle’s light. It was definitely a human. He lurched forward. No. He stopped. It was too still—a rock, or a predator watching him. No… its arm moved. That was an arm. He switched off his flashlight—the lights from the sky were getting so bright now, the beam was more of a hindrance than a help in making out things that were far away.</p><p>            He walked just a bit faster, picking his way on the rocks or tundra moss instead of the snow to muffle his footsteps. The outline became clearer, the clean blocky lines of cadet armor obvious now. That little lump beside the figure was a helmet—Cody’s face was turned up toward the sky, and as Rex slowed and his eyes adjusted, he could even see his breath misting in the air.</p><p>            Cody jumped suddenly and turned, grabbing for his rifle.</p><p>            “Cody!” Rex lowered his rifle and lifted a hand. “It’s me!”</p><p>            Cody turned on his light and Rex flinched as it hit him full in the face. “Wh—Rex? Is that you?”</p><p>            “I’ve been looking all over for you!” Rex said, shoving Cody’s rifle out of the way. “Why are you ignoring your comm link?! You were supposed to check in a long time ago!”</p><p>            “Sorry… I, uh….” Cody shut off his light sheepishly. “I guess I lost track of time. I haven’t seen any game anywhere… but would you look at that storm?”</p><p>           <em> “That’s </em>what distracted you<em>?”</em> Rex cried. “Quickdraw almost got <em>eaten</em> while he was on watch and you’re just sitting here watching the fancy lights in the sky! I thought you were dead! Why didn’t you comm in? Are you… <em>are you hiding something?</em>”</p><p>            “Hang on, wait a minute.” Cody waved a hand quickly. “I never heard<em> anything</em> on my comm!”</p><p>            “Nothing at all?”</p><p>            “Nothing! I promise. Must be malfunctioning.” Cody tapped it. “Rocky, come in. This is Cody.”</p><p>            They waited in silence. Rex tried next. “Five-Eighty-Eight, come in, this is Seventy—th—this is Rex.”</p><p>            Cody smiled and Rex turned his back to him to keep an eye on the way he’d come.</p><p>            “Rocky, come in, this is Rex.”</p><p>            Nothing.</p><p>            “Looks like yours is broken too,” Cody said. “So… wait, what happened to Quickdraw?”</p><p>            “Something nasty tried to eat him,” Rex muttered tensely. “He’s injured. Might need an evac.”</p><p>            “And you came to get me on your own?”</p><p>            “Somebody had to do it,” Rex huffed. He took a deep breath, trying to let go of his anger now that he knew Cody hadn’t done all this just to freak him out. “Rocky and Five-Eighty-Eight are taking care of Quickdraw and trying to get a message to Master Chief.”</p><p>            “I wonder why our communicators aren’t working.” Cody tapped his repeatedly—it sparked and he recoiled. “Whoa!”</p><p>            “Maybe it’s….” Rex finally took a good look up at the sky, his anger giving way for a moment to awe and a different kind of fear. “Maybe it’s the magnetic storm. Can it do that?”</p><p>            “I dunno,” Cody said in a soft, wondering voice.</p><p>            They stood there for a moment, the bands of color thickening above them, green fading abruptly into violet further up in the sky, growing longer and curling like luminous smoke. It was so quiet, suddenly, just his breathing and Cody’s, and the soft hiss of the wind.</p><p>            “It doesn’t seem real,” Rex whispered, feeling weak suddenly. It was relief, he realized. He was relieved that Cody was alive, relieved that he wasn’t alone in the dark.</p><p>            “You don’t see something like that every day,” Cody agreed, his breath steaming. “Maybe some people don’t even see it at all… their whole lives.”</p><p>            Rex shook himself and turned his eyes away from the sky with effort. “W… we better get back to camp. Quickdraw’s in pretty bad shape.”</p><p>            “Right.” Cody put his helmet back on. “Guess the other guys are probably… worried too.”</p><p>            “And watch out for a big hairy quadruped with fangs,” Rex warned as he picked his way down the hillside.</p><p>            Cody laughed nervously under his breath. “Is everybody else okay?”</p><p>            “Yeah. At least <em>they’re </em>taking the dangers of the environment more seriously now.”</p><p>            “What, you mean like you? Coming out on your own to rescue me? Did somebody order you to do that?”</p><p>            “No,” Rex said stiffly. “<em>They</em> told me it was a bad idea. But I know what I’m doing… unlike you.”</p><p>            “Well,” Cody said, suddenly quiet. “Thanks.”  </p><p>            Together they picked their way quietly toward the flashing lights.</p><p>            “How big was it?” Cody asked when they were halfway there.</p><p>            “Pretty big,” Rex said. “I’d say it was… maybe as tall as us at the shoulders. Four eyes. Lots of dark shaggy fur….”</p><p>            “Nice.” Cody jumped onto a rock halfway across the stream, slipped and fell through the ice with a splash. “Oh… that’s just great!”</p><p>            “Careful!” Rex scolded, grabbing his hand to help him up. “It’s slippery.”</p><p>            “Yeah, I knew that,” Cody puffed, shaking out an arm and a leg.</p><p>            “Any water get in?”</p><p>            “I don’t think so.”</p><p>            “Next time, just wade across… I don’t think any of the ice here is thick enough to hold us up.”</p><p>            “It worked while I was coming this way,” Cody sighed.</p><p>            “You also managed to not get eaten while coming this way, but Quickdraw didn’t even leave camp. You can’t trust luck. That’s why it’s better to do things the smart way.”</p><p>            “Hmm.”</p><p>            Rex turned his flashlight on periodically to check their surroundings as they came closer to camp, getting nervous again. The light signal hadn’t come for a while now. He would have heard the screams if another one of those creatures managed to burrow into the cave, right?</p><p>            “Are we going the right way?” Cody asked.</p><p>            “Yeah. Camp’s straight ahead.” Rex gestured with his rifle. He glanced suspiciously at Cody. “So you <em>were </em>lost.”</p><p>            “I didn’t say that. I was uhh… just asking. Making conversation.”</p><p>            “Right,” Rex said skeptically.“You know, we <em>told</em> you not to wander off.”</p><p>            “I had to ‘wander off’ to find food!”</p><p>            “Yeah, and <em>obviously </em>the best place to look for food isn’t on the actual planet’s surface, it’s up in the sky! Good job.”</p><p>            Cody sighed tightly but said nothing.</p><p>            Rex quickened his pace. “We should hurry.”</p><p>            “I’m right behind you.”</p><p>            They jogged the rest of the way, quiet except for their footsteps and breathing. Rex hoped these creatures weren’t the type who only chased you if you moved quickly. Quickdraw wouldn’t have had any reason to run.</p><p>            The creeping fear kept him going faster, and then faster, and Cody kept pace with him until they both slid down the slope to the entrance of their shelter.</p><p>           “We’re back! I found him!” Rex called before he crawled inside into the blinding beam of Rocky’s flashlight. A fire smoked on the highest shelf of the shelter, and Quickdraw had been moved to the middle sleeping shelf to keep him warm.</p><p>            “See?” Rocky cried in relief. “I told you it was them!”</p><p>            “Quickdraw’s getting worse,” 588 said quietly.</p><p>            Rocky turned his flashlight back on Quickdraw’s face. The cadet looked clammy; his hair was plastered to his head, and his eyes were unfocused when they fluttered and squinted against the light. He breathed shallowly.</p><p>            “That’s not good,” Cody murmured.</p><p>            “Any luck getting a message out?” Rex asked.</p><p>            Rocky and 588 shook their heads, looking crestfallen.</p><p>            “The transmitter is completely fried,” said Rocky. “It looks like the battery overloaded somehow.”</p><p>             “Is it internal damage?” Cody asked, feeling Quickdraw’s pulse. “What are his injuries?”</p><p>            “I think that thing’s fangs were venomous, or the saliva or something,” 588 said in a hushed tone, as if he didn’t want Quickdraw to hear. He looked terrified.</p><p>            “Great! Venom… that’s not something a bacta patch can fix….” Cody took off his helmet and scratched furiously at his head, thinking. “Where did it get him?”</p><p>            “Right on the stomach.” Rocky pulled back the blanket covering Quickdraw and showed Cody the bandage. “If it was on his leg or something, we could have made a tourniquet I guess, but we didn’t even realize it was a toxin until… well, until he started acting sick….”</p><p>            “What medicines do we have?”</p><p>            “Um…. Not much….”</p><p>            As the other three got out their personal medkits, Rex turned back toward the exit.</p><p>            “Where are you going?” Cody asked immediately.</p><p>            “I’m gonna check out the transmitter, see if I can fix it.”</p><p>            “I’m telling you, it’s fried!” 588 cried hopelessly. “We’re stuck here until they come back for us.”</p><p>            Cody and Rocky looked at 588 uncomfortably.</p><p>            “Quickdraw might not live that long,” Rex said, not flinching when 588’s mouth twisted and Cody sent him a sharp look. It was what they were all thinking, after all. “There has to be some way to fix it. Anyway, it’s worth a look, and it’s better than doing nothing. You three keep thinking of other ways to help him…. I’ll be outside.”</p><p>            He turned and crawled back out the opening. It seemed colder outside than before, maybe because the inside of the shelter was actually warm now. The transmitter waited, tucked in another dug-out on the other side of the boulder. Rex knelt next to it, placed his rifle down and examined the battery, disconnected it and then slotted it back into the nodes. No sign of life. The wind was picking up. The lights were all over the sky now, blooming into bright oranges and whites, and Rex wasn’t sure if they made him feel calmer or more unnerved. It was such a quiet storm, and yet it had them completely trapped. He wondered how it might affect a rescue ship, if he ever managed to get the message through.</p><p>            There wasn’t anything visibly wrong with the battery. He took it out again and examined the nodes where it had connected to the machine. Maybe some ice particles were disrupting the flow of energy? It seemed unlikely, but Rex didn’t know too many details about how these transmitters worked, so he ran his fingers along the inside of the conductors anyway. A mild shock ran up his arm.</p><p>            “Ow!” He recoiled, shaking his hand.</p><p>            A crunch on the snow behind him made his head whip around.</p><p>            “Rex<span class="ILfuVd"><span class="e24Kjd">—</span></span>Seventy-Five Sixty-Seven…? It’s me, Cody.” He came into view, rifle balanced against his shoulder. His voice sounded solemn, subdued.</p><p>            “Oh.” Rex hastily picked the battery up out of the snow where he’d dropped it. He brushed it off, checking it for damage. “It’s fine, by the way,” he said grudgingly. “You can call me Rex. Everyone else is doing it now….”</p><p>            “Oh. Alright, then. I, uh… Rocky and I are thinking we should see if we can find something to make a poultice, just on the chance it’ll draw out some of the poison. We have a toxicity sensor. It… could buy Quickdraw a little time, maybe.”</p><p>            Rex was silent for a moment, thinking. “And what if one of you gets attacked as well? Or both of you? Then we’ll be two or three men down, and still no hope of getting out of here in time.”</p><p>            “We can’t just hide here forever, and we have to find some food anyway or we’ll starve!”</p><p>            “Just test that thing that was eating Quickdraw and see if it’s edible! I say we should all stick close to camp. There’s no point in wandering off again.” Rex scowled up at Cody. “You don’t even know what you’re doing! You obviously don’t know anything about surviving in this kind of environment.”</p><p>            “That’s what the toxicity sensor’s for! Anyway, maybe alone it’s too dangerous, but there’s safety in numbers.” Cody hesitated. “Will you come with us?”</p><p>            “We have to contact Master Chief,” Rex said, placing the battery on top of the transmitter. “It’s our only real hope to save Quickdraw. Everything else is too much of a long shot.”</p><p>            “And trying to send a message with a dead transmitter isn’t a long shot?” Cody gestured dismissively at the machine. “Come on, Rex. This isn’t like the tests back on Kamino. You’re not getting any points by sticking to protocol. We’re on our own!”</p><p>            “I know that!” Rex protested. “I’m not doing this to get any points! I’m just trying to keep him alive! As far as I’m concerned, we already failed this mission thanks to you and Quickdraw.”</p><p>            “You’re blaming <em>me?</em>” Cody cried. “I didn’t do anything!”</p><p>            “Exactly!” Rex yelled. “You didn’t find any food—you weren’t even <em>looking!</em> And you didn’t even come back when Quickdraw was <em>screaming</em>—”</p><p>            “That’s not my fault! I didn’t hear it!”</p><p>            “Yeah, that’s right. Because you were too busy messing around! You’re completely unprofessional and childish!”</p><p>            “You’re the one who’s unprofessional!” Cody’s voice was finally losing its usual warm, easy tone. He took a heavy step toward Rex. “<em>I </em>think you’re just so scared to finally be in a real life or death situation, you can’t give up on contacting Master Chief to come rescue us. You just… you just can’t accept that we have to figure this out on our own, because our trainers aren’t here to tell you what to do! That’s not how it’s going to be when we get on the battlefield, and you know it!”</p><p>            “I’m <em>not. scared</em>,” Rex growled.</p><p>            “I don’t believe you,” Cody murmured seriously… taunting him. Rex glared up at him, fingers digging into the snow next to him.</p><p>            “You’re the one,” Rex hissed, “who’s still trying to prove you know something by looking for some magic plant that’ll cure the poison. It’s not going to work. You just don’t want to look bad because we have to get pulled out… because we <em>failed!</em>” Rex threw a handful of snow at Cody’s face. It missed and splattered on his chestplate.</p><p>            “Ha!” Cody brushed it off, kicking some snow in Rex’s face. “Who’s being childish now?”</p><p>            Rex only just managed to fling an arm up in time to block it. “Shut up! Just stop bothering me and let me get back to work!”</p><p>            “Look, until the storm is over, whatever you do trying to repair it will probably just fry the circuits even more!” Cody insisted. “We have to give up on contacting anyone. We have to accept that it’s impossible right now.”</p><p>            “No!” Rex said stubbornly. “I can fix it!”</p><p>            “You’re an expert on machinery now?” Cody scoffed, pulling his rifle down off his shoulder into both hands. He shook his head and sighed. “You’re so full of yourself.”</p><p>            Rex took a deep, angry breath, staggering to his feet. He was tired of looking up at Cody, tired of letting him look down on him. “Go get yourself killed then, if you think it’ll help! If you think it’ll help Quickdraw! Go!”</p><p>            “Fine…! Rocky and I will be<em> fine</em> on our own,” Cody said proudly. He took three stiff steps away, then hesitated. “I just… would have liked to have you with us. So we could all watch each other’s backs. Six eyes are better than two, three guns are better than one. That’s what keeps <em>real </em>soldiers alive, you know. Sticking together. That’s the only thing. <em>Selfish </em>troopers don’t last very long.”</p><p>            Rex glared down into the open battery compartment, and turned his ear toward it, his face away from Cody. Was he imagining a soft humming sound?</p><p>            Cody sighed heavily and turned to go. Rex’s stomach cramped with guilt and an even stronger rush of annoyance.</p><p>            “Hey!” Rex called after him, and he stopped. Rex took a deep breath, determined to be the mature one. “Be careful out there.”</p><p>            Cody took another stiff step away and put his helmet on. “Don’t worry,” he muttered. “We will.”</p><p>            “I’m not <em>worried</em>,” Rex whispered under his breath.</p><p>            Then Cody was gone, and Rex tried to turn his attention back to the humming. One moment, he was convinced he could hear nothing and was imagining it all; the next, he swore it was there. Thoughts of what else he should have said to Cody ran through his mind, interrupting his concentration. <em>You weren’t here! You weren’t the one who took down that huge monster! At least I did something to save Quickdraw! What did you do? Nothing! And you think I’m the coward? You would have fainted before you even fired a shot! The only reason you weren’t scared out there is because you were too dense to even realize you were lost! You’re not prepared for this! You just think it’s some kind of game!</em></p><p>            He jerked out of his angry daze, realizing he’d been staring blankly at the transmitter for far too long. Rex took a deep breath and tried to shake it off. His stomach felt all shaky—from anger! Anger! And it was all Cody’s fault!</p><p>            He reached down and, hesitantly, tapped the conductor again. Nothing. He placed his hand on it. Was he just imagining that it felt warm through his glove? He took his glove off and felt it with his bare hand. It wasn’t freezing as a lifeless bit of metal would be in this weather… more neutral in temperature. In the corner of his eye, the sky flared a bright pink and green; he jerked and pulled back as a shock made his heart skip a beat. It started pounding again.</p><p>            How could the transmitter be conducting electricity without a power source? Breathless, Rex turned his eyes in wonder toward the rippling sky.</p><p>            As if in a daze, he put his glove back on and reached, his hand hovering over the dial for a moment before he switched it over to a regular distress code, and opened all channels. He held down the button.</p><p>            “This is Seven-Five-Six-Seven requesting immediate evac for Cadet Sixty-Zero-One. Come in Master Chief. Repeat, this is Cadet Seven-Five-Six-Seven requesting an immediate evacuation for Cadet Six-Zero-Zero-One, critically injured.”</p><p>            He made sure the volume was turned up, and waited. Static came through erratically, interspersed with dead silence, fluctuating.</p><p>            He tried again. “This is Seven-Five-Six-Seven, requesting immediate evacuation….”</p><p>            Over and over. He tried to time it with the pulses of color, but even when he managed by chance to make them coincide, there was no response. Maybe it didn’t make a difference at all. At last he lapsed into a simple regiment of repeating the message, waiting ten seconds for a response, then doing it again.</p><p>            He was slumped in defeat against the transmitter, half hugging it with his chin on his folded hands, droning on (“Come in Master Chief. Repeat, this is Cadet….”) when at last there was a voice. A cool, measured voice, interrupted by static but growing clearer as a long powdery ribbon of bright red unfurled and split into threads across the sky.</p><p>            “—receive—essage, repeat, medical evacuation team has been deployed. Cadet, we are receiving your message. I assume your transmission is being interrupted.”</p><p>            “Yes!” Rex cried, little thrills racing up his skull. “Yes, our transmitter’s batteries were—”</p><p>            “Repeat, medical ev—b—deployed. Cadet, we are receiving your—”</p><p>            Rex rocked back for a moment, fighting down the immediate urge to go tell 588. There might be further orders to hear. He pressed the button again and said, “Master Chief! Awaiting further orders, fur—further instruction! Repeat, awaiting further instruction! This is Cadet Seven-Five-Six-Seven, we—we are—we have received your reply!”</p><p>            He waited, but there was once again nothing. He tried a few more times, trying to keep his excitement under control and speak professionally. A buzz of indecipherable words came back… and then nothing once again.</p><p>            It was alright. It was going to be alright. Rex snatched up his rifle, jumped to his feet and scrambled back down to the shelter’s entrance.</p><p>            “Five-Eighty-Eight!” He yelled as he crawled inside. “Five-Eighty-Eight, I got a message through! Medical evac’s on its way!”</p><p>            588 looked up with wide eyes. He had pulled Quickdraw’s head and shoulders into his lap “What? How?!”</p><p>            “I don’t know!” Rex cried breathlessly. “Somehow the energy from the storm—it got through, just for a second! Master Chief said, she said an evacuation team’s been deployed! I don’t know when they’ll get here, but they… they heard me!”</p><p>            “I can’t believe it,” 588 breathed out in a weak laugh. “Quickdraw, hear that?” He tapped the cadet’s face lightly. “You’re gonna be fine, buddy.” Quickdraw’s brow furrowed and he took a ragged breath. “Just hang on!”</p><p>            “I’m gonna signal the others to come back, I’ll be right back!”</p><p>            Rex hurried back up to the top of the pit and flashed his rifle’s light five times, forward, left, then right. Then he took his helmet off and cupped his hands around his mouth. “CODY!”</p><p>            His voice seemed to run off into the night, and in a moment he heard a faint reply.</p><p>            <em>“Coming!”</em></p><p>            Rex waited, half-lying against the side of the snow bank. He stared out across the tundra, finally picking out a few signs of movement. He let his eyes drift back up to the sky, where the storm’s currents carried their charged particles in constant motion. The waves of color seemed less silently malicious now.</p><p>            Soon he could see Cody and Rocky running toward him, and could hear their crunching footsteps in the dark.</p><p>            “What is it?” Cody asked when he was within earshot. “Is he… did he—”</p><p>            “I got a message through!” Rex jumped to his feet.</p><p>            “You what?” Rocky choked.</p><p>            “I contacted Master Chief!” Rex said triumphantly, as Cody came right up to him and pulled his helmet off, panting. “She’s sending a medical evacuation team!”</p><p>            “But—but that transmitter was <em>dead,</em> how could you—” Cody stammered.</p><p>            “I think the battery fried because the transmitter was <em>already </em>picking up currents from the storm,” Rex said. “They just overloaded! I shocked myself on the conductor when the battery was removed, so I decided to try opening the channels without the battery in there.”</p><p>            Rocky just shook his head. “You have <em>got</em> to be making that up.”</p><p>            “No, I’m not!” Rex insisted, pointing. “Go see for yourself!”</p><p>            Rocky hurried off and Cody just stood still, staring at Rex.</p><p>            “What?” Rex asked, suddenly self-conscious.</p><p>            “Unbelievable,” Cody said simply. He waved the bunch of plants in his free hand carelessly. “Alright… you can tell me ‘I told you so’. I’ll never doubt you again. But, you know…” Cody smirked. “You shouldn’t count on luck.”</p><p>            Rex felt the last shadow of his annoyance drown in the thrill of success. “So you found something to help Quickdraw?” He grabbed at the fist Cody was waving around and looked at the plants. “What is it?”</p><p>            “I dunno, but the toxicity sensor says it’ll help, so… I figure it’s worth a try.” The smirk was gone as quickly as it came, and Cody’s voice was almost hesitant.</p><p>            “Great. Uh, good job.”</p><p>            Cody’s face lit up in a grin. No resentment, no hard feelings.</p><p>            Another wave of relief hit Rex, and an undercurrent of shame. He <em>had</em> been scared. Cody wasn’t such a bad soldier. He’d been thinking ahead. And Rex didn’t want to think about what would have happened if the message had never gotten through… or if Cody and Rocky <em>had</em> gotten themselves killed.</p><p>            Uneasily, Rex turned away and called over toward the transmitter’s dugout. “Rocky! We’re going inside.”</p><p>            Rocky came out of the dugout, shaking his head. “That is the <em>weirdest </em>thing I’ve ever seen. I swear it wasn’t doing that when I checked. It’s like you brought it back from the <em>dead</em>.”</p><p>            Cody laughed. “Come on Rocky. Let’s get inside before the transmitter starts talking like a protocol droid.”</p><p>            “Don’t even joke about that!” Rocky huffed, shuddering visibly. “Droids….”</p><p>            Cody laughed again and slapped Rex on the back as Rocky passed them, then squeezed Rex’s shoulders tight with one arm. “Either you’re really lucky, or really smart.”</p><p>            Rex staggered slightly, startled by the affectionate gesture. A stiff, involuntary laugh escaped him, just a huff of air.</p><p>            “Or both,” Cody said. “Either way, it’s a good thing you were here.”</p><p>            Rex just walked a few paces forward, not sure what to say, and Cody let go of him so that they could both crawl inside, back into that snowy globe of warm air and light.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Test of Perception</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Rating: PG<br/>Genre: Gen<br/>Warnings: None<br/>Summary: Two-shot with the next chapter. Cody is determined to find a way to help his fellow discouraged cadets overcome a skills test they keep failing in command training, but tension is running high and what Cody finds instead are the limits of Rex's patience. Cody and Rex are nearing 7 in this, around the equivalent of age 13.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>          Cody skipped the last few rungs of the ladder, jumping right down onto the floor in front of their wall of sleeping pods. “COME ON BROTHERS!” he yelled up at the rest slowly emerging from the other pods. Most of them were bleary-eyed and unsmiling, but despite this, Rex was one of the first to come out, feeling his way down the ladder with his eyes barely a slit open, entire face screwed up against the light.</p><p>          “Congratulations, Rex, you are today’s winner!” Cody grabbed Rex’s hand as soon as it was free of the ladder and raised it up. </p><p>          Rex snatched his hand away. “Ugh, stop it. Can’t we have two minutes of peace and quiet after waking up? It’s not a race. Anyway, being called a winner feels almost like an insult after we failed the practical course <em>again</em>.”</p><p>          “Oh come on,” Cody laughed over his own fatigue headache. “That’s why I’m trying to pep you up!”</p><p>          “Too much pep,” Rex groaned, heading immediately for the door. </p><p>          “Aren’t you gonna wait for the rest of the guys?” </p><p>          Rex made a sharp movement as if throwing Cody’s suggestion in the trash before he turned the corner.</p><p>          “You could stop trying so hard, you know.” Rocky jumped down beside Cody. “He’s just going to be like this until after breakfast, and I don’t blame him, really. I don’t really want to think about today either… how many more tries do you think Master Chief is going to give us?”</p><p>          “Eh, don’t worry about it. We’ll figure it out. Anyway, I’m just trying to start us off on a positive note. We can’t let our last defeat bring us down.”</p><p>           Up above them, 8815 and Fort were trying to shake Snapper awake with no success.</p><p>          “Well he’s still breathing,” 8815 said. “Snapper! Wake up!”</p><p>          “Where’s some cold water when you need it?” Fort sighed. “Come on, let’s try poking him all over.”</p><p>          The rest of their cohort slowly climbed down from their pods, most of them still rubbing their eyes. At last, Snapper jerked awake and slapped Fort’s hands away, nearly startling him into letting go of the ladder.</p><p>          “Guys! OW! That actually hurt.”</p><p>          “You were out cold, brother!” 8815 said, smiling. At least someone wasn’t letting their losses get to him. “Come on, we’re running out of time to shave.” </p><p>          “Shave what?” 588 snorted. “I don’t even have enough for Master Chief to notice.”</p><p>          “I have enough for <em>me</em> to notice,” Cody groaned. He rubbed his chin and shuddered at the sparse prickles he felt there. “I better get moving if I want to have enough time. See you guys at the mess.”</p><p>          Months of experience had taught him that even though Rex was still often the odd one out, when Rex was feeling confident, the rest of the cohort did well. Cody had to at least <em>try </em>to pep him up. He ran to the door, slowing to a more acceptable pace once he was out in the corridor and within view of the Kaminoans. His stomach was already cramping from hunger and he hadn’t even been awake for more than ten minutes.</p><p>          When he entered the crowd in the refreshers, he didn’t immediately see Rex’s number on anyone’s fatigues, and half the brothers were stripped to their black undergarments. He began pacing behind the ones at the long basin trying desperately to wash the sleep from their eyes, and wondered which of the grumpy-looking cadets was Rex.</p><p>          “Rex? Rex!” He called, watching for people’s reactions as it echoed against the hard bare floors. Several brothers turned to raise eyebrows at him, but a few paid no mind, one of them staring with just a bit too much focus in the mirror. “Rex!” Cody reached out and slapped his shoulder lightly. “Hey, I was thinking—”</p><p>          “Who’s Rex?” asked the cadet. </p><p>          “Wha….” Cody stared back at him. Like many of them, he wasn’t wearing his labeled outer shirt while washing up.</p><p>          “Whoever he is, he probably doesn’t appreciate you making a nuisance of yourself trying to find him.”</p><p>          Cody felt his ears start to burn. “Sorry, guess I—”</p><p>          “It’s embarrassing. Can’t be on your own for two minutes?”</p><p>          “Hey….” Cody looked suspiciously at the cadet, who immediately averted his eyes as if realizing his mistake. “So what’s your name then?”</p><p>          “Uh….” The cadet paused for just a moment too long, eyes darting around as he turned on the water. “I don’t have one!”</p><p>          “I knew it. It is you!” Cody weakly tried to laugh off his embarrassment. “Wow, I didn’t expect <em>you</em> to play a mean joke like that.”</p><p>          “Oh so you can play pranks, but when I do something like that, it’s mean?” </p><p>          “I don’t try to make other people feel stupid,” Cody muttered. “Especially not people who are just trying to be friendly.”</p><p>          Rex sighed. “I’m trying to get ready, Cody. Why are you following me around when you could be trying to scrape the top layer of your chin-skin off?”</p><p>          “Hm.” Some heat still lingered in Cody’s face. “I’m not that bad at shaving,” he mumbled, turning to analyze his face in the mirror. “I just care about how I look so I try harder to get a close shave than you guys do.”</p><p>          “I never said you were bad at shaving, I just think you should let your face take a break once in a while. There are more important things to worry about than whether or not your cheeks are a tiny bit scratchy.” Rex splashed water on his face and picked up a hand towel from a cubby below the basin. “No one can even tell a difference but you.”</p><p>          “So what? It’s my face!” Cody punctuated the thought by picking up a clean razor. “Anyway, I had this weird dream last night—”</p><p>          “If it’s anything like the last one, I don’t want to hear it.”</p><p>          “No, it wasn’t creepy this time. It was just kind of funny. Our sleep pods were all somehow connected to the maintenance corridors and flood tunnels, and Ninety-Nine was showing me how to get through them to this secret room full of—”</p><p>          “Cody, it’s okay. I really don’t need to hear every single detail,” Rex said, checking his chin in the mirror. Up close, Cody could see a few dark bristles, surely enough for shaving to be required, but Rex didn’t reach for the shaving supplies, instead grabbing his shirt and turning to leave.</p><p>          “Wait, you’re not going to shave at all? Seriously? I’d think a stickler like you would be afraid of getting marked down.” </p><p>          “It’s not going to be noticeable until after lunch. I’ll just shave then. I need some time to myself to think.” Rex began heading for the door—Cody tried to put a hand on his shoulder but Rex ducked away and walked out without so much as a goodbye.</p><p>          Cody stared after him. “Well that didn’t work,” he muttered under his breath, and tried to focus instead on the satisfaction of getting the perfect shave. So much for trying to distract Rex from the stress they were all feeling. Cody hadn’t even gotten to tell him about the best part of the dream, with the jet packs and the space suits and the flying away….</p><p>          While he guided the blades carefully over his skin, the others from his cohort trickled in. “Where’s Rex?” asked 2701. </p><p>          “Eh, he’s a hungry grump so he went on ahead already,” Cody said, trying to get at that one tricky spot on his neck. “Didn’t even shave. Said other things were ‘more important,’ in that way he does.”</p><p>          “Maybe he thinks a little scruff makes him look older,” 2701 said. “You know him, always acting like the rest of us are so immature.” </p><p>          Cody’s stomach cramped again and he stopped himself from agreeing. “He’s just awkward, that’s all. I’ll get him to come around.”</p><p>          “I dunno,” said 3973 skeptically. “You’ve been trying for a few months already. Doesn’t seem like you’re making much progress, the way you guys bicker lately.”</p><p>          “He said we’re friends just the other day. You guys just aren’t persistent enough to break through his little I-don’t-need-friends act. The bickering is mostly just teasing or because he’s stressed.”</p><p>          “Sure, Cody,” said 2701. </p><p>          Cody just laughed quietly and rinsed the residual shaving gel from his face.</p><p>      …</p><p>          It was so quiet in the classroom. Every restless rustle of fabric from every antsy cadet was audible to all the others, each one of them fighting to sit still. Cody stared at his console as it flashed information at him about political history, the headset making his head feel even heavier than it already did. Why did they have to spend so much time on civilian things like taxation and trade deals? Where was their part in all of that? </p><p>          The instructor didn’t even speak, simply pacing the floor with his long, sinuous strides to ensure none of them were getting distracted. Cody tried again to focus on the screen in front of him. </p><p>          <em>…after which the Galactic Senate passed Prop-31-814D in order to enable taxation within the Free Trade Zones. This left the Trade Federation with few means by which to protest; they knew that the invasion of a peaceful planet, however, would get the senate’s attention quickly. A contract with the Geonosians resulted in the deployment of more than three thousand battle droids to Naboo….</em></p><p>          Ah, there was a battle coming at last. But this instructor would no doubt expect them to remember the other details—names, dates, social maneuverings—leading up to the battle instead. Cody’s eyelids felt heavy. The thought of curling up under the console began to sound extremely inviting.</p><p>          No, he had to stay awake. Shaking himself, he groggily raised his hand, bracing it with his other to make sure it stayed high enough that the instructor saw it.</p><p>          It took nearly a minute before the Kaminoan spotted him and changed course from his pacing, as unhurried as if he’d just happened to turn on a whim. </p><p>          “What is your trouble, cadet?” the instructor asked in almost a whisper, a soft undertone which barely carried. His entire body and long neck bent in a single graceful arc toward where Cody sat. </p><p>          “No trouble, sir.” Cody kept his voice quiet too, but just a shade louder than the Kaminoan’s. “I just thought, maybe it would help us to solidify this information if we could act it out.”</p><p>          The Kaminoan blinked slowly at him. “Act it out?” he repeated, as if not a single one of those words made sense.</p><p>          “Yeah!” Cody couldn’t help his voice from raising a smidge more in excitement. When so much else in their training was hands-on, how did the Kaminoans expect them to remember this stuff just by sitting and listening? Surely even Rex’s attention span was suffering, as worried as he was about the upcoming course. “Some of us could be the Trade Federation, some of us could be the Senate, some of us could be the Naboo people, or the droids… it’s just more effective and interesting than—”</p><p>         “You will remember well enough through repetition,” said the teacher, straightening abruptly so he could glare down his nonexistent nose at Cody. “Continue your reading, and don’t distract your peers again.”</p><p>         “Yes, sir,” Cody sighed. Well, it had been worth a try.</p><p>         He glanced to his left, where Rex sat, half-gratified to catch Rex watching him. But Rex just shook his head with a small grimace before turning back to his own screen.</p><p>         Was it a grimace of judgment or of sympathy? Cody hoped the latter. He tried to refocus, force himself to go back and read the previous page, which he had almost zero memory of already. If only it wasn’t so <em>boring</em>….</p><p>          Just one hour and fifteen minutes to go. Cody took a deep breath and bent over a bit so the screen took up more of his vision and there were less distractions in his periphery. He hadn’t gotten more than two sentences in before a twisting pinch in his arm sent a sharp pain through it.</p><p>          “OW!” </p><p>          A blur of red moved at the edge of his vision. His yelp had brought everyone’s heads around, including the instructor’s. “What is it?” the Kaminoan demanded, his calm tone cracking away.</p><p>          “Uh, leg cramp, sir,” Cody fumbled, catching Rex’s wide-eyed, guilty look.</p><p>          “And you couldn’t keep a small leg cramp from causing such a disruption?” He frowned. “I expected more self-control from command cadets. How disappointing.”</p><p>          Cody swallowed his protest and bowed his head back toward his console, just long enough for the instructor to withdraw fully, before he sat up straight again and shot Rex a glare.</p><p>          When Rex finally caught his eye, he lifted a hand with a quizzical expression. <em>What?</em> He put his hand up by his face, discreetly leaning into it for a second. <em>You were falling asleep.</em></p><p>      <em>    No I wasn’t!</em> Cody signed a simple negative at waist-height, sure to punctuate it with an outraged expression once he was certain the instructor wasn’t looking.<em> I was focusing.</em> </p><p>          Rex just quirked one eyebrow in a skeptical look and turned back to his console.</p><p>          Tension buzzed along his shoulders as he tried to make the words on the screen stick. What was Rex’s problem with him lately? Obviously, he was worried about the course, but that didn’t mean he had to take issue with every little thing Cody did, especially when Cody was trying to help <em>both </em>of them succeed. For a few dreadful seconds, Cody caught himself wondering if Rex had pinched him to try and get him in trouble, just to prove a point. After all, Rex did have a reputation for being a bit unyielding with the rules.</p><p>          No, he told himself. Even if he was overly serious and a bit pretentious, Rex wouldn’t do that—he was looking out for Cody, just like Cody had done his best to keep him awake in classes like this before. Cody let the defensiveness drain out of him; maybe he was also more stressed than he’d thought. </p><p>          They were friends, even on days when they were both out of sorts. He wasn’t about to give up like everyone else just because Rex was a little slower to laugh, a little quicker to withdraw when stressed. Someday, the rest of his batchers would be eating their words, all of them saying, <em>Yeah, Cody, you were right.</em></p><p>          What he really needed to focus on was a new way to approach the practical course, something that would bring success into reach. Then everyone would feel better. Cody imagined Rex at ease, triumphant… and excited determination made him sit up straighter. He was going to find a way to make his cohort succeed. </p><p>          The rest of the class passed in a haze of distraction, Cody barely paying attention to the words he read, his mind wandering over possibilities, analyzing the visual and spatial memory he had of the obstacle course, and all the other strategies that had gone wrong. There had to be some way to—</p><p>          The corner of his screen was flashing, indicating how much time he had left in this section before he was required to move on to the next. He rushed through the screens, skimming the words feverishly. He even finished the section early, and breathed a sigh of relief, sitting back, returning to his planning. An idea was beginning to form.</p><p>          Finally they came to the last half hour. A test appeared on screen and Cody tapped the button to start. His head felt like it was full of static, the first question already drawing a blank. He tried to mentally sift through the material he’d skimmed, but it was all overwritten with plans for what was coming next. He made his best guess and moved on. </p><p>          Fifteen minutes. At least half of his answers had been wrong so far, but there were still over a hundred and fifty to go. He could still get a decent score, he told himself.</p><p>          Ten more minutes. Cody’s finger moved across the screen almost on autopilot, selecting test answers half by impulse. At least this involved moving some part of his body—a slight ripple of adrenaline kept him feeling awake but less alive, like his brain had melded with the computer systems and was only useful for spitting out political history facts.</p><p>          Suddenly the blur of red in his periphery shifted, slumped. Cody sat up straighter in alarm and reached over to tap Rex’s arm, trying to shake him quickly before the instructor noticed.</p><p>          Rex’s head jerked up and his eyes flashed open. He ran both hands over his face and blinked at Cody, mouthing the words<em> Thank you</em> before shaking himself and turning back to the screen with a disoriented expression. </p><p>          Five more minutes. Cody rushed through the answers, wincing as more and more of them flashed red. </p><p>          One more minute. The signal blinked in the corner of the screen, and Cody hit the last answer and sat back with a barely stifled sigh of relief, frowning at the score that lit up the bottom of the display: 149/200. </p><p>          “Your time is up,” said the instructor quietly, and there was a soft ambient rustle as everyone slid to sit on the edge of their seats, waiting for permission to rise. “Be prepared to retake the test tomorrow if your score is below one hundred fifty. You will not be allowed an extension on the written analysis if you fail the test again. You are dismissed.”</p><p>          “Thank you instructor,” a hundred voices intoned.</p><p>          Cody yanked the headset off and stood up with relief. </p><p>          Rex was already on his feet, facing him. “Thanks for waking me up. I didn’t mean to get you in trouble, by the way.”</p><p>          “Don’t worry about it,” Cody said. Excitement began to creep back in as he thought of his plan. They turned to head down the amphitheater-style steps and out of the room to their twenty-minute break period. “Hey, what was your score?” </p><p>          “Hundred eighty-three,” Rex grimaced. “If I’d just—”</p><p>          “<em>Whoa!</em> How did you get that many? You didn’t even have the full amount of time!” </p><p>          “What, why? What did you get?” </p><p>          “Hundred forty-nine,” Cody groaned. “I really don’t want to take that test again… the information just won’t stick in my brain.”</p><p>          “Well… come on, I’ll help you study,” Rex offered. </p><p>          “What, right now?” Cody cried. His brain felt like it was made of mush.</p><p>          “Yeah, of course. A real friend wouldn’t leave you behind, right? Don’t worry.”</p><p>          Rex seemed to have mistaken the dismay in his voice for something else, something more self-conscious, as if Cody didn’t want to impose on Rex’s time. Cody made a face, feeling a little abashed. </p><p>          “That’s really nice of you, Rex, but uh… if I try to stuff anything else into my head I’m afraid it’s going to explode.”</p><p>          “We can run a lap at the gym and jump in the pool for a minute, clear your head. Then it’ll be easier to focus. Actually, sometimes it’s easier for me to learn things on the move. I’ll drill you while we run.”</p><p>          “I… guess that might work,” Cody admitted as they turned down another hallway.</p><p>          One of Rex’s eyebrows twitched upward. “Are you sure you weren’t falling asleep earlier?”</p><p>          “Yeah, yeah, I’m sure. Let’s go!”</p><p>          The plan was formed enough by now that he could risk shifting gears. Just a few minutes of boring stuff, he promised himself, and then the rest of the day would be one huge win.</p><p>      …</p><p>          By the time they had all gathered in the briefing room with its big window facing in to the obstacle course, Cody was practically bursting to share his idea. They stood in a rough arc facing the window. </p><p>          “So,” Cody began eagerly, but Rex spoke at the same time</p><p>          “I have an idea. I’d like to lead the group today.”</p><p>          Everyone turned to look at Rex, quiet and attentive. Cody only just stopped himself from clearing his throat. When had Rex had time to come up with a plan? He turned to face Rex along with the others, curiosity overcoming his impatience.</p><p>          “There has to be a limit to the number of crawlies they deploy for each of these runs,” Rex said, referring to the small hand-sized droids which were released to scuttle unpredictably throughout the course. They were difficult to shoot and even more difficult to outrun, and anyone they touched was immediately tagged out. “I propose that we assign myself and Twenty-Seven-Oh-One to this vantage point overlooking the sensor field.” Rex pointed at a platform above the area where sensor lasers criss-crossed the last stretch of course before the ending climb. That was as far as any of them had gotten; the lasers always slowed them down too much and allowed the crawlies to catch up. “Then we can shoot down any enemies while the rest of you are drawing their attention in the last stretch, and use our cable-guns to try and swing across to the end.” </p><p>          4569 narrowed his eyes. “I thought we already ruled out swinging over the lasers. Didn’t we say it’s too easy to miss the target?”</p><p>          There were only two possible anchor points above the laser field for their cables to grasp, each less than half a meter square, and the second one could only be reached by a trooper hanging from the first. </p><p>          “We’re the best shots in the cohort,” Rex said, nodding at 2701. “And if there’s only two of us up there, we’ll get across much faster than if we tried to get everyone to the finish line that way. That was the other problem we talked about.”</p><p>          “Well, we’ve seen how well <em>my</em> plan went,” 4569 said grimly. “I’m willing to try anything at this point. So what are the rest of us going to be doing?”</p><p>          “Okay okay, but wait a minute,” Cody interrupted eagerly. “That—that all sounds great. <em>And </em>I have some ideas too. If Rex and I put our heads together, it could not only get us <em>through</em> the course, but in record time.”</p><p>          “Oh really?” Snapper grinned and punched his shoulder. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”</p><p>          “Just hear me out. It’s simple!” Cody pointed toward the base of the spindly, tangled structure of tubes, platforms, ladders, bars, walls, and ropes. “See that box below the lower platform, just before the sensor field? I’d bet you anything that’s the power box, and there’s a shut off switch inside! It’s so obvious—we’ve been going about the course all wrong. If we want to get to the end we have to disable the field. That’s what we’d try to do if this were a real battlefield, right?”</p><p>          A few of his fellow cadets were peering through the window at the dark rectangular shadow below the platform, lips slightly parted as the truth settled on them. The others were glancing at each other. Rex gave a quick look at the box and frowned thoughtfully.</p><p>          “So now we just have to come up with the rest of the plan—incorporated with yours, Rex! You and Twenty-Seven-Oh-One can still be our sharpshooters, but you’ll only have to hold off the crawlies for half the time. So…? Come on guys, what do you think?”</p><p>          “I take back what I said,” said 4569. “I’m willing to try<em> almost</em> anything. But setting one of our men on a task like that just seems wasteful.” </p><p>          “Yeah,” said 3973.</p><p>          “Wasteful?” Cody scoffed. “I’m telling you it could cut our time in <em>half!</em>”</p><p>          “But whoever goes down there will need at least one man to cover him,” said Fort. “Especially since we don’t know how long it’ll take to open the thing and shut it off—<em>if </em>that’s even what’s in there.”</p><p>          “But we have to try,” Cody insisted. “Master Chief even emphasized that we have to pay attention to our environment and use it. Maybe this is what she meant!”</p><p>          “Eh, I really doubt it, Cody,” said 588. “It’s<em> too </em>simple.”</p><p>          “Anyway,” 3973 said, “Rex proposed his plan first, so that’s what we’re doing. You can have your turn tomorrow.”</p><p>          “But—but I’m not trying to replace Rex’s plan, I’m just proposing something to add onto it!”</p><p>          “Well, it’s up to Rex whether we add it on or not,” Quickdraw said. “Seems like we all agree he’s our leader for today.”</p><p>          “Rex?” Cody turned back toward him. </p><p>          “I don’t know… you’ve gotten us in trouble with your hotshot plans before, Cody.” Rex looked doubtful. “Can you really imagine Master Chief approving something like this?”</p><p>          “Ooh,” laughed a few of the other cadets, looking eagerly at Cody to judge his reaction. “He’s got you there.”</p><p>          Cody blew out the heat gathering in his lungs, a rough laugh to dissolve the sense of rejection. As he’d thought, Rex didn’t think he was trying to commandeer his plan—Rex was just being overly cautious, as usual. All Cody had to do was make their chance of success convincing.</p><p>          “What if I volunteer to do it myself while the rest of you go through with Rex’s plan?” Cody kept his tone friendly. “That way if there is a problem, I’m the only one who gets in trouble, and if it fails—which it won’t, but even if it does—the rest of you get to test Rex’s plan anyway.”</p><p>          “No, Cody,” Rex said firmly. “I need you to do the second climb and lay the bridge for us. You’ve been the fastest of us at that one so far. We’re all counting on you.”</p><p>          “So let someone else try to take care of the box—who volunteers?” Cody looked around expectantly. </p><p>          No one raised their hands, and only a couple of them had the decency to look sheepish about it. Snapper even <em>grinned.</em></p><p>          “Okay,” Cody said reluctantly. “So I’ll do the box and someone else can do the second climb, then. Rocky, your time was almost as good.”</p><p>          Rocky shook his head. “Sorry, but… you’ve been outvoted, alright? Let it go.”</p><p>          They all turned back to face Rex as he made last-minute clarifications to their assigned roles. It was all much the same as last time, with only slight adjustments. Cody grabbed a helmet and rifle from the rack by the wall, shoulders tight with frustrated disbelief. He’d been so close to turning things around for them.</p><p>          But maybe he still could. As they filed out toward the starting line of the course, he looked over the possible paths he could take to the box. There was a short one—it would require skipping out on making the second climb and laying the bridge, but it wouldn’t matter so much to lose time on that task if they could run right across the deactivated field at the end. And if he didn’t ask for someone to come with him, they’d only be one man short.</p><p>          A defiant thrill began to settle in his nerves as they all lined up, watching the lights shift down the starting timer, rifles and bodies at the ready. Three… two… one.</p><p>          They were off, getting a running start to jump up onto the first barrier wall and haul themselves over. Cody’s muscles sang as he hopped from peg to peg over the first drop and vaulted over the thick electrified rod to grab the ledge on the other side. But while everyone else lifted themselves up, Cody grabbed one of the support poles and began to slide down it, a bolt providing a stopper for one of his feet where he could reposition himself for the next jump. </p><p>          “Crawlies at nine-o’clock!” someone was yelling. </p><p>          “Cody’s gone! I think he fell?!”</p><p>          “No, no one’s been tagged out yet!”</p><p>          “Keep going! Get across the net!”</p><p>          “Where’d he go?! CODY!”</p><p>          “Forget him! We’ve got to keep moving!”</p><p>          Cody glanced around—breathing hard more from excitement than exertion—then adjusted his grip and launched himself forward off the pole, grateful for his helmet and armor when he smacked full-body into the opposite support. He gripped it tight and only slid down halfway before finding another bolt to stop himself on, the fingers of one hand straining to keep him steady while he shot his rifle’s cable toward a thick beam and swung the rest of the way. He bounced against the target support, boots sliding a bit on its surface, until he could swing himself around to grip the horizontal supporting bars that ran under another platform. Just as he’d thought, it was almost like the course was designed for him to go this way.</p><p>          A skittering sound brought him up short and he twisted, hanging from one hand, to see a crawley coming toward him, clinging upside-down to the platform just above his, its dull metal body and shining eyes sending a new flush of adrenaline through his veins. He braced a foot against the nearest vertical support and pressed the release on his rifle, tugging on the cable—it wouldn’t retract!</p><p>          The crawley was on the cable now, and Cody shot at it blindly twice before deciding it was useless. His other hand was losing its grip fast anyway. Desperately, he let go of the rifle and kicked it toward the oncoming droid—the cable warped and whipped strangely from the reversal, throwing the crawley down to the ground below and leaving the rifle swinging and jerking in the open air, Cody swinging too, a handful of meters away.</p><p>          “That was close,” Cody breathed to himself. He turned and took the bars faster than he should have—more than once his stomach lurched as his fingers slipped just before he’d been about to let go with his other hand. </p><p>          But the box was in front of him now. Arms aching, he searched for a way to open it. </p><p>          “Come on Rocky! Don’t let go! You’re almost there!” Voices above him cried out, along with blaster bolts and stifled yelps as his batchers tried to hold off their attackers.</p><p>          There were no latches on the box that he could see, no dials or switches. The sides were smooth and uniform, whatever openings it might have well-hidden. </p><p>          Cody shifted his way around the edge of the platform, one hand at a time, hoping it looked differently from another angle.</p><p>          A scream sounded, followed by half a dozen voices yelling “ROCKY!”</p><p>          A loud crack. </p><p>          Cody’s stomach dropped to his dangling feet, and he felt his fingertips go cold. The buzzer sounded that indicated someone had been tagged out—then again, and again.</p><p>          “Rocky! Rocky, are you okay?! Say something!”</p><p>          “G—uh, kee—keep going!” Rocky’s voice cracked, choked and breathless. </p><p>          They had already lost at least three men, but even half of them making it to the end would be better than what they’d managed so far. Cody saw a small gap between the side of the box and the platform’s underside—inside, he could see blinking lights. He tried slamming his fist near the crack, hoping to knock the whole thing loose.</p><p>          It held firm—his fist throbbed. If only he still had his rifle…. </p><p>          More yelling above him, but he had to focus if he wanted to help them. Cody tried shoving the edge of the armor plate on the back of his hand into the crack to see if he could pry it open. </p><p>          There was the buzzer again. And again. Cody jerked his arm back and forth furiously, suddenly realizing as he did so that the plate was now stuck. </p><p>          Another buzzer—more yelling. </p><p>          Cody pulled back, yanking and twisting until the armor plate finally popped free—and the grip on his other hand gave out. </p><p>          His feet hit the mildly electrified floor with enough force that his knees buckled, hot jolts of pain zapping through his nerves from every point of contact with the floor as he fell to hands and knees. The lights flicked dim and then bright again, a signal that the course was over: they had failed. The shock stopped. Cody staggered to his feet, rushing to get a look at his teammates.</p><p>          Rocky lay flat on his back in a dark spot at the bottom of the course, just below where the bridge would have been laid, his body still heaving to catch its breath. Most of their brothers stood around him, Rex and 2701 staring down from their high vantage point, helmets off and eyes wide with horror. </p><p>          “Is he hurt? Is he okay?” Cody rushed forward, but Snapper and 4569 turned as one, Snapper’s fist colliding with his chest, 4569 shoving him with such force that Cody’s feet flew out from under him, and it was all he could do to tuck his head in and roll out of it.</p><p>          “<em>Whoa, guys!</em>” Cody cried in disbelief. “What’s wrong with you?! I just wanted to see if Rocky—”</p><p>          “It’s<em> your </em>fault! All of this, you know that, right?!” 4569 yelled. </p><p>          Cody lurched back to his feet. “IS HE OKAY OR NOT?” </p><p>          “I’m okay—” Rocky gasped as he pushed himself up to sit. “I’m okay, just—just winded. And sore.”</p><p>          “Hey, hey, don’t move,” Quickdraw urged. “You fell a long way—you could have broken ribs or spinal damage for all we know!”</p><p>          “I’m fine!” Rocky tried to laugh but it only made the pained look on his face worse once Quickdraw had removed his helmet.</p><p>          Two pairs of boots hit the floor: Rex and 2701 had finished climbing down, and Cody turned with relief toward Rex. “I was so close to getting the box open! If I’d just—”</p><p>          “I don’t care,” Rex said coldly. He’d put his helmet on to free his hands for the climb down, and he kept it on now, but his voice was enough all on its own to bring Cody up short.</p><p>          “But there were lights inside!” Cody protested. “It’s definitely the power source, just like I said! If you guys had listened to me—”</p><p>          “NO!” Rex yelled, shoving the side of his rifle roughly against Cody’s chest. “<em>You </em>should have listened! But you never do. You never listen to<em> any of us!</em>”</p><p>          Cody choked out a confused laugh. “What are you talking about? You guys didn’t even consider my idea!”</p><p>          “This <em>one time! </em>Just this one time we said no, so don’t you think it was for a good reason?!” Rex’s voice was shaking. Rocky’s injury must have really rattled him. It was just like on Kesh, Cody realized. That was the last time they’d fought like this. Rex was just stressed.</p><p>          “Hey…” Cody forced his own voice softer and took his helmet off, holding up his other hand in surrender. “It’s okay, I understand why you’re upset. Let’s take a deep breath and—”</p><p>          “Ugh.” Rex’s took a step away from him, shaking his head, his every movement radiating disgust, his voice thick with it. “I can’t stand you.”</p><p>          “What?” Cody heard himself laughing even as a strange lightheaded chill spread over his body. “Come on Rex… you don’t mean that. We’re friends, right?” How could this be the same person who had just been helping him study for twenty minutes?</p><p>          “Friends listen to each other,” Rex hissed, his free hand clenched in a tight fist at his side. “You’re <em>not </em>my friend. You just want someone to admire you, someone you can boss around, who’ll laugh at your stupid jokes and tell you you’re smart and take the fall for your <em>stupid ideas!</em>” </p><p>          “Wh….”</p><p>          “I know you think you’re a commander already, but you’re not! The way you act sometimes, I don’t even know how Master Chief hasn’t made you disappear yet! No matter how much you want people to look up to you and do what you say—you’re not a real leader and not a real friend.” Rex’s voice was fervent, heavy, trembling. “Maybe you thought you could add me to your list of followers, of people who you’ve tricked into thinking you <em>actually </em>care about<em> anything or anyone</em>, but you haven’t! You haven’t! <em>I’m not stupid!</em>”</p><p>          Cody’s whole body pulsed with ghosts of electrical shocks, a thrum that wanted to drown out every thought and set his skin prickling. He rubbed his hands together to try and get the shaky feeling to dissipate.</p><p>          “Rex, come on….” His voice came out fainter than he meant it to. “You really think I’m like that?”</p><p>          “Why shouldn’t I?” Rex huffed. “You haven’t done anything to prove it wrong. You don’t even know how to take no for an answer!”</p><p>          “I’m trying to help you guys, that’s why I—”</p><p>          “No. If you actually cared, you would listen to us.”</p><p>          “But—” Cody grunted in frustration and stepped toward Rex, reaching for his shoulder. “Rex, come here, let’s just—”</p><p>          “Just leave me alone!” Rex knocked his arm away and stalked off toward the door—the door where Master Chief stood, coolly surveying the chaos. </p><p>          “You are all to spend the next hour in intensive as a consequence for your failure to work together. Hydrate yourselves and report directly to Drill Master Hiti So—with the exception, of course, of cadet Four-Three-Three-Nine, who will report to the infirmary. Cadet Two-Two-Two-Four will see me after the drills for additional review.” A hard edge crept into her otherwise calm voice when she turned her gaze on Cody, and he swallowed, wondering just what <em>additional review</em> entailed. If she wasn’t going to dress him down right now in front of the others, he had no idea if this review would be worse, or if—did he dare hope?—she was in a lenient mood today.</p><p>          “Yes, Master Chief!” they all belted out. </p><p>          “Thanks a lot, Cody,” someone muttered behind him.</p><p>          Rex hesitated where he stood by Os Tala, and then, at her nod of permission, stalked away down the hall.</p><p>       </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Test of Unity</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Rating: PG<br/>Genre: Gen<br/>Warnings: None<br/>Summary: Occurs directly after "Test of Perception". After letting his ego get the better of him, Cody finds reconciliation with Rex to be an uphill battle.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>        “Do you consider yourself a leader, cadet Two-Two-Two-Four?”</p><p>        Cody stood on legs that would barely hold him, his entire body quivering like jelly. Despite all the water he drank before going through the intensive drills, his throat felt parched. Dried sweat caked his hair into clumps and made patches of his skin feel stiff. His pulse still thrummed in his ears. </p><p>        They were alone in a small room with various unfamiliar machines along the walls. Perhaps it simply doubled as a private office space and storage area. He didn’t dare let his eyes wander too much. </p><p>        “I aspire to be one, Master Chief,” Cody said, a little short of breath.</p><p>        “Then tell me which of the necessary traits you still lack.”</p><p>        Cody opened his mouth and faltered. This wasn’t how his talks with trainers were supposed to go. They were supposed to yell at him a little, ask him simple questions he could answer simply—<em>Yes, sir</em>, or <em>No, sir.</em> All they usually wanted was a little show of obedience and a confirmation that he understood their expectations, could give the right answers to the right questions. Even Os Tala hadn’t varied too much from that pattern, until now.</p><p>        He tried to think beyond his body screaming for water and food—and rest. Just to sit down would be bliss.</p><p>        “I….” He struggled to sift through possible answers. “I have room for improvement in all of them, Master Chief.” Surely that was humble enough for her?</p><p>        Her hands, which had been clasped loosely behind her, drifted to her sides, and one lifted to rest its long fingers against his neck. He tried not to react, though it made him want to shudder. Her thumb tilted his chin upward, forcing him to meet her eyes.</p><p>        “That is not an answer, cadet,” she said softly, but the softness held a threat. “If you are not going to try, then no matter how clever you may be, or how strong… you are of no worth to this program.”</p><p>        The air disappeared from his lungs for a moment. Her fingers put no pressure on his throat, though he suddenly realized how easily she could close her fist around it, could imagine vividly how it might feel. Rex’s fearful voice, his reddened eyes, flashed at him from a memory of a late night excursion, speaking of cadets who’d disappeared for less than that one harmless infraction. </p><p>        “So I ask you again.” Os Tala’s hand stayed where it was, fingers wrapping only slightly closer around the back of Cody’s neck, his chin pushed back just barely past the point of comfort.“What qualities of a leader do you lack?” </p><p>        He wanted to swallow, but she would feel it if he did. But she could probably already feel him trembling. </p><p>        “My… my batchers said I don’t listen,” Cody tried. </p><p>        “What else?” Her voice was almost a whisper.</p><p>        She wasn’t going to kill him, he reasoned. It would be too much of a waste. Cold sweat broke out on his back as he realized he no longer felt sure of that. Even if she wouldn’t strangle him, she could easily plunge a hypo into his exposed neck and that would be it. His eyes darted down to the many unmarked vials on her belt. </p><p>        “I’m sorry, Master Chief.” He tried to take half a step back, away from her. </p><p>        That was a mistake. “What. Else.” She brought her face close to his, pushing his head back a tiny bit more, the already-aching muscles in his neck burning.</p><p>        “I… I….” Why couldn’t he think? His mind latched on to things Rex had said. “I don’t always take… things seriously.” </p><p>        He did swallow then, wondering if he imagined that the pressure of her thumb had eased up a little. His hands ached from the effort of keeping them at his sides.</p><p>        She said nothing, waiting for more.</p><p>        “I’m….” Cody tried to take a deeper breath, wanting desperately to avoid her gaze. The more she stared at him the more his mind went blank, fleeing into trying to anticipate what she wanted. “Stubborn.”</p><p>        But that was a strength! His face burned with desperation. </p><p>        “And?” she prompted, when he was quiet for too long.</p><p>        He felt his breath start coming short without his permission. What more did she want? “Overconfident… uncooperative…!” Could she see him shaking now? His knees wobbled even while he stood still. “I think I’m—I put myself over the mission, my ideas—I don’t—I can’t think—Master—”</p><p>        His hand flew up by impulse to her wrist. Just for balance, just to hold himself up, but the contact sent a fresh jolt of fear through him when her grip tightened, that split second before her other hand came up to push him back into a feeble stance.</p><p>        He let go of her arm in the same instant she let go of his neck and he shuddered, just trying to breathe without collapsing. </p><p>        “You will stand there, cadet, until the hour is through, and you have reflected on your weaknesses. And I expect you to reflect aloud.”</p><p>        “Yes, Master Chief,” he said automatically, because there was no other option. But he immediately wondered what she would do when—not if—he failed to remain standing, or to think of another failing to tell.</p><p>        His stomach hurt. He thought of his brothers, sitting together for lunch—it was nearly time. He thought of his bed. Why had none of those things seemed interesting enough to him this morning? It was all he wanted now.</p><p>        She never looked away from him, waiting. <em>Think, Cody. </em></p><p>        He took a deep breath and began again, trying to see himself from the view of Rex and the others. </p><p>        “I lack… discipline….”</p><p>        Dread crept through him as his legs continued to shake, and the sweat began to coat every inch of him. How in the world was he going to fill an entire hour with this? </p><p>    …</p><p>        When the usual gentle hiss of air and stimulants woke Cody the next morning, there was a blissful space of less than a second where he didn’t remember the day before. Then it was over, and a rock appeared in his chest, pinning him to the bed. </p><p>        Staring at the bright, blank ceiling of his sleep pod, Cody took stock of the soreness and feeling of weakness in his arms and legs, his neck, his mind jumping over and over between two painful images—Os Tala’s unyielding stare, and Rex walking away from him while Rocky still gasped for breath. Toward the end of his review with the Master Chief, he had barely recognized himself, spitting out any weakness he could think of and trying to fill the endless minutes with rambling half-made-up explanations. He pushed those memories away as fast as he could.</p><p>        Cody listened for the sound of his batchers waking up. Normally he would be one of the first to jump out and face the day. But what was the point? </p><p>        He wondered what would happen if he just stayed in his pod. Would the others try to wake him up? Or would they all leave without even checking on him, murmuring about how he should have known better and he probably got what he deserved?</p><p>        The thought of that made his stomach turn to ice, and he sat up, stifling a groan at the soreness in his arms and core. It felt like every muscle in his body was tearing.</p><p>        Reluctantly, he opened the pod and saw that 588 and 8815 were the first up today.</p><p>        “Hey, brothers,” he called, forcing his usual cheer into his voice.</p><p>        588 glanced at him but said nothing, eyebrows pinched before he looked away. 8815 acted like he hadn’t even heard him. It was just like dinner yesterday—they had all spoken over him as if he were invisible, and spread out to make his spot at the table vanish after he’d gotten up for water. He’d tried to laugh it off and ask them to scoot over, but they had just moved his tray to the end of the table and then ignored him until he gave up and walked away with it, too tired to fight.</p><p>        They would forgive him, Cody told himself. They had to. </p><p>        One by one, the others started to come out. Cody waited for a decent gap before braving the ladder—they were all taking it a bit slower today. When he reached the bottom he looked up and accidentally met Rex’s eyes glaring down at him in the split second before they both looked away. </p><p>        “Hey, Cody.”</p><p>        Cody’s head whipped around—too fast for his sore neck—to look at Quickdraw, who’d just hopped down.</p><p>        “Your scruff’s getting out of control, brother. You trying to grow a disguise?”</p><p>        Cody’s hand flew to his chin before he remembered that he’d shaved when he had showered before going to bed the night before, needing that small sense of rightness that it gave him, even exhausted as he’d been. His facial hair was only the tiniest sprinkling of prickles now, even less than he’d had the previous morning. </p><p>        A smattering of quickly-stifled laughter came from the rest of the cohort, and Cody’s face burned with embarrassment even as the heaviness in his chest lightened a bit. At least he existed enough for them to laugh at.</p><p>        He forced himself to laugh a little too, even if it came out weak and fake. “Very funny.”</p><p>        Then it was silent again, none of them looking at him, and Cody turned to hurry toward the refreshers.</p><p>        By the time he finished rinsing his face off, Rex was just starting to brush his teeth. Cody watched him, noticing that no one was really talking to Rex yet either. But maybe that would change after they ate. </p><p>        For a moment after sitting down at their usual table in the mess hall, Cody watched his batchers approach with their trays of food and braced himself. Maybe they would avoid him altogether and find a different table. </p><p>        But then they came and sat down around him, one by one. Rex took the furthest seat he could, but Rocky sat down right across from Cody.</p><p>        “Hey, Rocky, how are you feeling?” Cody dared to ask.</p><p>        “Huh? Oh… fine.” Rocky shrugged. “I got off easy, actually. Fractured rib and some heavy bruising, so I get light duty for the next few days.”</p><p>        “Don’t go easy on him just because of that,” Snapper grumbled. “He still got you injured and the rest of us drilled until we were sweating out our eyeballs.”</p><p>        “You mean crying?” 588 muttered.</p><p>        Snapper shushed him. </p><p>        “Guys, we can’t do this forever,” 2088 sighed. “Cody’s still a part of our team—”</p><p>        “Somehow,” 4569 scoffed in disbelief.</p><p>        “—and that means we have to work with him whether we like it or not. Besides, every one of us makes mistakes.” 2088’s expressive voice was impossible not to listen to, and Cody watched the others reluctantly turn their heads toward him. “This was a big one, but that doesn’t mean Cody has nothing to offer us going forward. I’m sure he’s already learned something important from this.”</p><p>        At 2088’s expectant look, Cody could barely hold back a grateful grin. “I have! I should have listened to you guys. You were right, Forty-Five Sixty-Nine… everything that went wrong yesterday was my fault. I got… carried away, and I’m sorry.”</p><p>        Postures shifted reluctantly around the table, some of the stiffness melting away. 4569 grunted, not looking at him.</p><p>        “Just don’t pull something like that again,” Quickdraw said. “It was a total disaster.”</p><p>        “Yeah,” Cody said sheepishly. </p><p>        “And don’t expect us to use any of your wild ideas for a while,” said Fort.</p><p>        “Yeah….”</p><p>        “We’re going to need every last one of us to get through that course today,” 2088 reminded them. “Especially with Rocky out of commission.”</p><p>        He didn’t mention their soreness from the intensive drills—he didn’t need to. The table went quiet again as they all turned back toward their food, and Cody found it a little easier to breathe. Maybe they really would all come around eventually. </p><p>        But during political history class, Rex acted like they were strangers. When Cody took the test again, a tightness came into his throat when the right answer jumped out at him, linked to the fresh memory of yesterday’s run, Rex chanting facts at him in time with their footsteps. </p><p>        He stood up at the end of class. “Rex, I just <em>barely</em> passed! I got one hundred fifty-seven. You really helped—”</p><p>        Rex was halfway down the stairs already. Cody took a deep breath and told himself he could thank him properly later.</p><p>        The rest of the day inched by in a series of tiny victories with his batchers—a glance, a few words, or a reluctant half-grin at something he’d said. By the time they were back at the obstacle course, he’d won at least one interaction from every member of the cohort—everyone, that is, except Rex. </p><p>        Cody tried to focus on the plan 2088 was presenting, but half his mind was busy trying to think of what to say. </p><p>        “So then the cables would become a fixed bridge over the gap,” 2088 was explaining, “and we can climb instead of swinging across, anyone who’s not over the gap providing cover fire. Rex and Twenty-Seven-Oh-One, I want one of you at each end until the last man crosses. You can work out positions between the two of you.”</p><p>        “I’ll go first,” said Rex. “After I lay the cables, Cody can climb across and help provide cover fire as well.”</p><p>        Nearly every cadet glanced between them, waiting for Cody’s response. Rex wasn’t looking at him, but he’d said his name for the first time in nearly a full rotation. He wanted to work with him!</p><p>        “Sounds good to me!” Cody grinned.</p><p>        “Because Cody’s the fastest climber,” Rex clarified hastily. “It’ll get an extra blaster on my side early and give the rest of you a better chance.”</p><p>        “Sounds good,” said 2088. “Snapper can go next, then Thirty-Nine Seventy-Three….”</p><p>        As 2088 continued laying out the plans, Cody could barely contain the relief he felt. As soon as they were dismissed to grab weapons and helmets, Cody rushed to Rex’s side.</p><p>        “Hey, Rex, thanks for saying—”</p><p>        “I didn’t say that to be nice,” Rex interrupted sharply. “It doesn’t change anything. I <em>have </em>to work with you, even if I hate it.” He turned his back to Cody and walked away again.</p><p>        All the little victories of the past few hours drained out of Cody like Rex had cut open an artery and left him to bleed. Numbly, Cody stood rooted to the spot until 2088 called his name, and he forced his legs to move.</p><p>    …</p><p>        Time would change Rex’s mind, Cody kept telling himself. But another day passed, and then another, and still Rex only spoke to him—only <em>looked</em> at him—when he absolutely had to. And Cody stared at the ceiling of his pod every morning, wondering how long it would take before he was excited to be awake again. Maybe some mistakes really did last forever.</p><p>        Six days after the incident, during their free work hour, Cody had Snapper in a headlock on the wrestling mat and Snapper was growling, <em>laughing</em>, and Cody knew Snapper had finally let it go. He laughed too, right before Snapper threw him over his shoulder and knocked the wind out of him.</p><p>        “Haha! <em>That</em> was satisfying to watch,” 4569 crowed. </p><p>        “Still can’t beat me in a boxing match,” Cody panted from the floor. </p><p>        “Someday,” Snapper promised, running a hand through his sweaty hair. “Maybe even today. You want a rematch?”</p><p>        “No….” Cody sighed, looking over at the furthest end of the massive room, where Rex was doing target practice alongside 588 and 3973. 2701 had just finished and was stalking back over toward them. </p><p>        “So are you and Rex best friends now or what?” Cody asked, still sitting on the mat.</p><p>        “What?” 2701 scoffed. “You’re joking, right? Just because we’re both good at the same thing? He’s not exactly friendly.”</p><p>        “I guess I just thought… since he’s not talking to me, maybe he’s talking to one of you now.”</p><p>        “Only as much as necessary.” 2701 shrugged. “Nothing’s really changed that way.”</p><p>        “I tried to apologize to him yesterday, and the day before that, but he didn’t even let me get past the first word,” Cody sighed. He’d even slept through twenty minutes of class today, and Rex hadn’t done a thing.</p><p>        “You blew it, Cody,” said 4569. “You’re just going to have to face that.”</p><p>        “But how am I supposed to make things right if he won’t even talk to me?” </p><p>        4569 snorted. “Why do you care? He’s just one person. You guys are total opposites anyway. It only bothers you because you can’t stand the thought that not everybody’s obligated to like you.”</p><p>        “That’s not true! I just—”</p><p>        “Really?” 588 said as he and 2701 positioned themselves on another mat, Quickdraw standing to one side to referee. “Are you sure? He kind of had a point with what he said, you know. You may be good at getting people to believe in you, but there’s more to being someone’s friend than that.” </p><p>        “Yeah,” Quickdraw grinned at 588. </p><p>        Cody blew out a breath and watched Rex hit five targets in a row. “Maybe you’re right… I should stop pushing him to talk to me.”</p><p>        “Wow, am I hallucinating? Did you just say I’m right?” 588 laughed. </p><p>        “Shut up,” Cody laughed too, but it felt hollow, and didn’t last long.</p><p>    …</p><p>        Ten days after Rocky’s injury, they’d finally made it eighty percent through the course, only two of their batchers tagged out just before the end. Cody didn’t let himself look for Rex in the refreshers, or in the line at the mess for lunch. He couldn’t bring himself to laugh triumphantly with the others either, his tongue feeling heavy in his mouth.</p><p>        They’d been given a twenty-minute rest period today, and Cody immediately headed for the pods, unsure whether the idea of being alone sounded good or awful. But he had barely stepped around the corner when he felt a hand on his shoulder. </p><p>        “Cody.” </p><p>        The cadet touching him had a somber expression. Cody nearly convinced himself he must be mistaken thinking it was Rex.</p><p>        But it really was him. “I need to talk to you,” Rex said. “Come with me.”</p><p>        So Cody followed him, wondering what more Rex could possibly need to say to him after being silent for so long. Had he been mulling over their conversation, furiously wanting to say just one more thing? Was he going to ask Master Chief to move one of them to a different cohort?</p><p>        Rex led him to a distant corner of the area below the pods, the walls covered in built-in drawers and cabinets for storing armor, training weapons, and, near a maintenance hatch, cleaning droids. There was a crate pushed up against the wall and Rex stared at Cody expectantly until he sat down on it in front of him.</p><p>        Together they listened to a few of their batchers climb the ladders and settle in for a nap.</p><p>        “Rex,” Cody began after a deep breath. “You were right, I—”</p><p>        “Stop,” Rex commanded, and Cody nearly bit his tongue. “I’m going to talk first.”</p><p>        “Okay,” Cody murmured, and waited. </p><p>        Rex’s composure wavered a little as he straightened, curled his hands into loose fists at his side. “I need to explain why I said what I said.”</p><p>        “You were—” right, Cody was going to say, but never got to finish.</p><p>        “Are you going to hear me out or not?” Rex snapped.</p><p>        “Sorry. Sorry, I’m listening,” Cody said hurriedly. “Please keep talking. I won’t say anything until you tell me to.” </p><p>        Rex sighed and gathered himself again. “Look… I’ve been trying my best to work with you. I told myself I could deal with you getting in my space and… dragging me into things… because it was just your way of being friendly. I didn’t realize just how much I wanted to believe the things you said. But the worst part is that I did believe them. I believed you wanted to be my friend, even though I didn’t understand why. I didn’t want to believe what the others seemed to think, that you only pitied me, or I was some kind of project or something. I believed you had good ideas, and that you were honestly trying to help. So when it looked like that was wrong, I thought, how stupid could I be? I should have known.” </p><p>        Cody opened his mouth to explain, to deny, but Rex gave him a sharp look and he stayed quiet. If Rex wanted him to just sit and take this, well, it was no less than he deserved. </p><p>        “I shouldn’t have said all those things in front of the others,” Rex said, a shakiness coming into his voice as if his emotions could barely be contained. Rex’s shoulders stooped a little, his arms crossing weakly in front of him. “I lost control. I was just… disappointed. I thought… you wouldn’t make a mistake like that if you really cared about us—I mean… about me. I <em>expected</em> you to listen to me, just because I was under some delusion that I was different than the others to you somehow. I let myself read too much into how you act—I mean—you’re friends with everyone! I’m not <em>special</em>, I just wanted to be, and I let—I let myself—I let it—I embarrassed myself in front of <em>everyone</em> because of it!”</p><p>        Cody stared at Rex, confused and guilty, his heart already feeling half wrung out from the ups and downs of this conversation. Was Rex blaming Cody or himself? Or both?</p><p>        “I want to know….” Rex blew out a breath. “I want to know if you really actually want to be friends. I can’t trust my judgment otherwise—I’m not good with people, everyone knows that. I just can’t work with you until I actually know why you’ve been focusing on me so much, and I won’t know unless you tell me. I think I know now you were just being friendly the same way you are with everyone, and it was nothing personal. But I want you to actually tell me that. Because being friends obviously means something different to you than it does to me.”</p><p>        “Okay,” Cody said. A shaky feeling had wormed its way into his stomach from Rex’s voice. “So does that mean it’s my turn to talk?”</p><p>        Rex nodded with an expression like he was bracing himself. </p><p>        “I want to apologize first,” Cody began.</p><p>        Rex shifted his stance, wearing a deep frown, a frown that was more eyes than mouth. “Only if you actually mean it.”</p><p>        “I do! I—” </p><p>        Cody stopped himself, remembering that awful hour with Master Chief, where he’d tried desperately to say anything he could to get through it. She had known when he was sincere and when his words were only words—<em>most</em> of them were only words. </p><p>        Rex was watching him, and Cody felt more exposed than he had even in front of Os Tala.</p><p>        “I do mean it,” Cody said, more earnestly this time. “I wasn’t thinking about how my actions would affect the rest of you, except for hoping you would all realize how great my idea was.” He grimaced at that thought. “I told myself I was doing it to help the group, but that wasn’t really true. You were right about me. I am… a little controlling. At least… I like to feel like I have some influence over <em>something</em>. Or someone.”</p><p>        Rex exhaled, slumping a little. “And you just wanted me to follow you too. That’s why you said we were friends.”</p><p>        “N—” </p><p>        Cody stopped himself again, the same chill coursing through him as he’d felt in front of Master Chief. Rex too would know if his answers weren’t real. How much had he lied to the brothers around him without thinking? He felt the same weakness in his limbs, and wanted to run away. But he took a deep breath instead, and spoke, even though it felt as much like condemning himself as it had to speak every weakness he could think of aloud in front of her.</p><p>        “Here’s the truth, and I hope you’ll believe me.” His voice was already unsteady and he tried to calm it, afraid Rex would think he was acting. “It… it did start out kind of like a game. I didn’t know if you would want to be friends with me, but I wanted to see….” Why was it so hard to admit? He watched Rex’s face fearfully. “I wanted to see if I could win you over.”</p><p>        “Why?” Rex frowned.</p><p>        “Because… I thought it would be interesting….”</p><p>        It sounded so awful, saying it out loud. Thinking it so openly. No wonder Rex had felt so humiliated. Cody thought of how all of the people in their cohort he’d thought of as friends had stopped speaking to him. Had they only started again out of necessity, or because it was too much effort to ignore him forever? </p><p>        “Okay,” Rex said to the floor, in such a sad, quiet undertone that Cody barely heard it. “So… that’s it. Thanks for being honest.” He turned away, clearly intending to leave it at that.</p><p>        “Wait, I’m not done!” Cody jumped off the crate and grabbed Rex’s arm, then immediately let go as if burned. “No, I mean—you can do what you want, but… please let me finish.”</p><p>        Rex turned back, looking at Cody with a tightlipped expression as if expecting Cody to punch him any second now.</p><p>        “I actually wish I was more like you,” Cody mumbled. </p><p>        “What do you mean?” Rex looked exhausted suddenly.</p><p>        “You’re just… so earnest about everything,” Cody said desperately, the ache going deeper into his bones, his stomach. “You always say exactly what you mean—you don’t pretend to be what you’re not. And you take risks, but never stupid ones… never just to show off. Only to help your brothers. There’s a purpose to everything you do, like you really believe in—”</p><p>        He stopped himself abruptly, heart hammering as he realized what he’d been about to say. </p><p>        “Like you really believe in it even when it’s just a training exercise,” he finished in a rush. “I just think… it’s… inspiring.”</p><p>        “Well….” Rex said slowly, seeming taken aback. “Even if it’s just training, it still means something. It’s preparing us for something real, with real consequences.”</p><p>        “I know, I just—but that’s what I mean, Rex. To you, everything is meaningful. That’s just the way you live your life.”</p><p>        “How else am I supposed to live it?” Rex half-laughed in confusion. “Like nothing means anything? You’re saying that’s how you feel?”</p><p>        “No…! I—well, I mean….” The breathless feeling of being in that small room with Os Tala threatened to overtake him, and he tried not to let his thoughts run any faster. “Maybe sometimes… it’s just easier if I don’t think about things too much.” He couldn’t meet Rex’s eyes, but he could feel Rex looking at him, and the urge to cover his face was strong. “I guess that’s a pretty awful attitude to have, huh? There’s just a lot of pressure….”</p><p>        “Pressure?” Rex’s voice sounded bewildered. “You always act like you couldn't care less… you seem like you’re never worried about anything.”</p><p>        His head felt strange again, that sensation of thoughts escaping him, running away before he could put them into words. Cody sat still, trying to calm himself. Why fight so hard to put his worst thoughts and feelings into words when it would only push Rex away? Maybe he shouldn’t try.</p><p>        It was impossible to speak for a minute regardless. His throat hurt too much, and his jaw was too tight.</p><p>        Rex sighed in front of him. “You don’t have to tell me… I just… never realized. But it’s nice to know there’s more to you. I always wondered. You’re not as shallow as you seem, I guess. Maybe you’re just complicated.”</p><p>        A jagged laugh broke through the blockade in his throat. “Thanks… I guess. But that means I’m not as perfect as you thought I was either.”</p><p>        “I never thought you were perfect.”</p><p>        Rex said it with such matter-of-fact exasperation that Cody couldn’t help but laugh in embarrassment again, one arm clutching his stomach. “Ow… ugh.”</p><p>        A hand touched his shoulder and he looked up, surprised to see Rex’s guarded expression had vanished.  He looked thoughtful instead, even as he withdrew his hand. “I like you better like this.”</p><p>        “Like what?” Cody asked in nervous disbelief. “Like a confusing mess? Really?”</p><p>        “I don’t need a friend who’s perfect. I just need you to be real.”</p><p>        At first the words didn’t fully register. But then Cody realized—<em>I just need </em>you<em> to be real</em>. Not <em>someone.</em> Not <em>people.</em></p><p>        “I’d rather deal with honest mistakes than fake perfection,” Rex went on. “That was the part I really couldn’t stand. I don’t even have to be special to you... I know you have lots of friends and I’m not the most fun to be around… I just have to know where I<em> actually</em> stand.”</p><p>        It hit him so hard he had to inhale suddenly, like he’d broken the surface of a pool, overwhelmed at being able to breathe. How could Rex still want to be friends with him? <em>Actual</em> friends. </p><p>        “I want to feel like you trust me,” Rex said quietly.</p><p>        Not<em> I want to know I can trust you</em>. Cody felt as if he’d been looking at things upside-down without realizing it. </p><p>        “I do trust you,” Cody said, before he realized how that sounded after everything he’d done. “I mean—I’ll work on that. I guess I wasn’t really acting like it… trying to do things my own way….” He trailed off.</p><p>        “We <em>all </em>want you to trust us,” Rex sighed. “And… I know you probably do too, but you were just going about it the wrong way. We’re all here because our trainers thought we were exceptional… so maybe have a little faith in us.”</p><p>        “I… yeah.” Cody nodded regretfully, mumbling and feeling foolish. “You definitely are… I’m sorry. I probably made you all feel like I thought you were incompetent.”</p><p>        “A little. But I’ve done my share of that too.” </p><p>        “I probably deserve to feel incompetent once in a while,” Cody said. </p><p>        “So I guess now we know why it didn’t work. I… to be honest, I’ve never really had a friend before… not like you, anyway. Not even close. I don’t… really know what I’m doing. I don’t know how to relate to people that well and—”</p><p>        “I want it to work,” Cody interrupted. “I want to keep trying.”</p><p>        Rex looked up and nodded once, a small smile flickering at the edge of his mouth. “I know I’m not the most likable person but… I’m glad you still want to. No one else has ever really tried the way you have.” An embarrassed look flashed over his face again. “I guess that’s why it hurt so much when I thought you didn’t really mean it before… saying we were friends, I mean.”</p><p>        How could Rex just say such things so openly? To <em>him,</em> even after he’d disappointed him? Cody stared in amazement, a flush of determination rising in his chest. He put a hand on Rex’s arm, suddenly realizing how few people would respond to Cody's mistakes this way, by spreading out their feelings, trusting him so easily not to take advantage of that, instead of lashing out or pushing him away. The intensity he’d noticed in Rex that first day came from somewhere much deeper than he’d anticipated. He wanted to be the kind of person Rex could trust with anything. Looking at him evoked a sense of wonder and admiration he’d never felt about another person before.</p><p>        “Actually,” Cody realized aloud, “I’ve never really had a friend like you either.”</p><p>        “But you have lots of friends,” Rex said, brow furrowed. “You’re great with people.”</p><p>        Were they really his friends? Their words flitted through his head, accusing him of only wanting them to prop up his own ego. He thought of his previous training group too, and how he had almost unthinkingly determined how to win their admiration. He laughed nervously and shied away from the pit where all of those thoughts led.</p><p>        “Yeah, sure, I know. But you’re just different. You really still want to be friends with me? I understand why if you don’t.” Cody had to ask again, no matter how much it scared him.</p><p>        “If you’re serious about it,” Rex said carefully. Then, after a second’s thought, he smirked, but it was almost shy. “If you think you can handle it. It’s true that we don’t seem to understand each other very well.”</p><p>        “I’ll keep trying,” Cody said solemnly. “And hopefully I won’t mess it all up like this again. I really am sorry I didn’t listen to you. And not just about the course… maybe I got on your nerves too much before that. I wasn’t taking what you said seriously… I just… wanted to make you laugh even when you were grumpy.” </p><p>        “Sometimes I just need some space!” Rex threw up a hand. “Especially since I didn’t know whether I should think we were even <em>close </em>friends. I’m not used to that kind of thing, and we’ve only known each other for a few months. No one’s treated me like this since I was a kid. A <em>little</em> kid.”</p><p>        Only a few months. A few months was plenty of time to make friends, in Cody’s experience. But not this kind of friend, he corrected himself. This kind of friend took more. Cody lifted his own hands in surrender with an unsteady laugh, his emotions still feeling scattered. “Okay, okay. I’ll try and remember that.” </p><p>        “So… we’re gonna be friends again?” Rex asked.</p><p>        “I never stopped wanting to,” Cody said.</p><p>        “Okay.” Rex held out his hand.</p><p>        “What’s this?”</p><p>        “It’s a handshake. You know, like we just learned about.” Cody blinked at him and Rex snorted, letting his hand fall. “I knew it. You <em>were</em> sleeping in political history!”</p><p>        Cody laughed sheepishly. “Which day?” </p><p>        Rex started to laugh too, and Cody realized with a thrill that it was the first time he’d gotten to see and hear it—a real laugh, not just a short one of mockery or exasperation. Rex looked happy, the laugh fading out into a grin, then a smile. Of the three, the smile was the most infectious. Just like everything else Rex did, there was nothing pretended about it.</p><p>        Cody felt as if all the weight of the last week and a half had been a bad dream. </p><p>        He was grinning too hard. Rex’s smile turned almost incredulous, teasing.</p><p>        “You were really worried after all.”</p><p>        “I thought you actually hated me!” It burst out of Cody, a relief to say it and know it wasn’t true after all. </p><p>        Rex laughed and shook his head. “Not the real you, at least. I’m still getting to know that one.” He let out a long sigh and started to walk away.</p><p>        That’s right. Their rest time was quickly running out.</p><p>        “Hey, Rex,” Cody called, not wanting this strange, sacred space to vanish yet. It was like nothing else he’d ever experienced. </p><p>        Rex stopped to look back over his shoulder.</p><p>        “Thanks for listening to me, and… for giving me another chance.”</p><p>        And there it was again, that smile. Cody took a deep breath of pure gratitude and couldn’t believe his luck.</p><p>        “You too, Cody,” Rex said softly. “Thank you.”</p><p>    …</p><p>        They had missed their chance to nap, and by the time dinner rolled around, Cody’s head felt fuzzy. He’d been stuck doing strategy sims for the last three hours, and even though strategy was his favorite sit-down class, his brain still felt fried and ready to quit.</p><p>        The noise of the mess didn’t help; he could feel a headache creeping in when he joined the line. It was impossible to pick Rex out in such a huge crowd, especially at this distance.</p><p>        All throughout the day, whenever he wasn’t fully focused on the task at hand, his mind drifted to their conversation in that quiet corner. Now, remembering it again, his headache seemed to ease a little bit.</p><p>        At last, full tray in hand, Cody rushed for the table where about half of his cohort already sat. He looked at the numbers on their fatigues: 3973, 2088, Quickdraw, 588—and then a smile caught his eye before he even had a chance to read the ones on Rex. </p><p>        Happiness spread over Cody like a rare beam of sunlight through the ever-present clouds, and he grinned. His first impulse was to go around to the other side of the table and sit next to Rex, but sat down across from him instead. </p><p>         “Hey,” he greeted. The brothers around him grunted, mouths full, and 3793 waved a hand briefly.</p><p>        “Hey,” said Rex quietly, smile fading. He picked up his tray, and for a second Cody’s heart lurched—was Rex going to leave now? Had he made another mistake without realizing it?</p><p>        He watched Rex walk to the end of the table, and then around the other side, coming toward him. And then Rex nudged 3973 with his elbow. </p><p>        “You mind scooting over a little?”</p><p>        3973 looked up and swallowed a mouth full of stew, eyes wide, before he glanced between the two of them and scooted over toward Cody.</p><p>        “Uh… sorry, I meant the other direction,” Rex said.</p><p>        Everyone at the table was staring now. As soon as 3973 had cleared the spot next to Cody, Rex sat down.</p><p>        Cody could hardly believe it. Impulsively he threw an arm around Rex’s shoulders, but kept it brief, patting him once before releasing him. A laugh of delight only just held back from breaking free.</p><p>        “Did I fall asleep?” Quickdraw asked, rubbing his eyes. “What’s going on?”</p><p>        “We’re just eating dinner,” Rex said, and shoveled a spoonful of stew into his mouth. </p><p>        Quickdraw turned his quizzical look on Cody instead. “Okay… I thought you two weren’t speaking to each other.”</p><p>        “We weren’t.” Rex shrugged. “So?”</p><p>        588 muttered something Cody didn’t quite catch. He didn’t much care, focused instead on how at ease Rex seemed, not seeming disturbed or annoyed by his proximity at all even when their shoulders or elbows accidentally touched or Cody had to cover a sneeze. They sat quietly eating, the others left speechless, watching them.</p><p>        “Well I’m glad you guys are getting along.” 2088 finally broke the silence. “That just means our team will be even better than before.”</p><p>        “I need more water,” Rex mumbled suddenly. His bowl was still three-quarters full. He braced a hand on Cody’s shoulder as he stood up and stepped over the bench.</p><p>        It was just the practical thing to do. Cody’s shoulder was there, and there was no reason not to use it. But it made a little bubble of warmth swell in Cody’s chest anyway, knowing that before today, Rex might have hesitated to even do that much, and certainly wouldn’t have patted it once as he left, turning it into a kind of brief goodbye.</p><p>        “Okay, what <em>exactly</em> did you say to him?” Quickdraw asked in a secretive tone as soon as Rex was gone.</p><p>        “What?” Cody turned to look at him, unable to hold back his grin now. “I just talked to him! Actually, he came to talk to me first.” He still could hardly believe it. “Amazing, right? He’s really… nice once you get to know him.” </p><p>        “I never thought he wasn’t.” Quickdraw shrugged, eyebrows quirked. “Well, I never thought he was mean anyway. Just serious. But I was sure you guys were finished! I’ve known Rex a little longer than you have, and he doesn’t seem like the type to be friends with just anyone. I think he doesn’t want to be influenced.”</p><p>        “Yeah… I know,” Cody said in wonder. </p><p>        “Well congratulations, Cody,” 588 said wryly. “You win again… guess we shouldn’t be surprised. You always get what you want, right?”</p><p>        “You guys,” 3973 sighed. “How about you stop picking on each other?  Can’t you just be happy that they’re not fighting?”</p><p>        “Ah, he knows we mean it in fun, right Cody?” 588 laughed. “Besides, it’s true. Maybe not always, but Cody does usually get what he wants. Somehow.”</p><p>        “What are you gonna do with yourself now that you’ve won over the last hold out in our group?” Quickdraw said. “Even Forty-Five Sixty-Nine likes you, even if he’d never admit it.”</p><p>        “Come on, it’s not about that,” argued Cody. </p><p>        “Oh really?” Quickdraw’s eyes were bright with intrigue. “Then what is it about?”</p><p>        “Isn’t it normal to want friends?” Cody sighed. </p><p>        “Yeah, but why Rex? It’s the fun of the challenge, right? Why else would you go for someone who’s harder to be friends with?”</p><p>        “But he <em>wants </em>to be friends with me,” Cody muttered self-consciously, running a hand through his hair. “And I kind of… look up to him, actually.”</p><p>        “Huh.” Quickdraw sat back a bit in surprise, reconsidering. After a second he shook his head. “Maybe I don’t have you figured out after all.”</p><p>        “Huh? What do you mean?” His body tensed a little—he’d said too much, shown too much. </p><p>        But just then Rex sat back down beside him, and he relaxed. For a moment, his grip on the situation around him eased, reassured by the fact that this one essential thing was now back where it should be.</p><p>     </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The next story in this series is <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/15950762">Who We Are Alone</a>. </p><p>Comments are the greatest thing ever!!! We would love to hear what you think about these boys!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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